Port Congestion

Introduction

Port Congestion is a VV Trade tool that allows users to view individual vessel and average duration that a vessel type has spent waiting before entering port. Users can view one year’s worth of Congestion data for all ports and terminals and split by all vessel types.

What do the Congestion Charts show?

The Congestion Chart displays the duration that individual vessels have waited at anchorage before entering port, and what the 14 day moving average of waiting times is. The moving average is especially useful in identifying trends in congestion and giving users an expectation of how long vessels may wait before entering port.

Users select a port for which they are interested in viewing congestion. Once in the Congestion tab, select a vessel type to see more details. The default view is to show congestion for vessels waiting laden and ballast but users are able to filter between the two if one is specifically interested in the loading or discharging port visits.

How is Port Congestion determined?

When a vessel has stopped at an anchorage one may assume that it is waiting to load or discharge at an associated port. However, this is not always the case. Vessels may stop for other reasons such as waiting for orders or due to a technical issue.

Additionally, in areas of the world where there are several ports in proximity, one anchorage can be used by many ports. For example, a vessel waiting in the East China Sea may be visiting the ports of Shanghai, Ningbo or Zhoushan.

This is relevant to know because it shapes how VesselsValue captures congestion data. VesselsValue only attributes the hours waited by a vessel to a port once it makes an actual stoppage there. This way, the waiting duration correctly reflects only those vessels that were waiting to enter a specific port.

Each vessel’s waiting duration is determined as follows:

1. When a vessel completes a journey, VesselsValue identifies when the vessel stopped and waited before entering port.

2. The time between when a vessel started waiting and the time it entered port is what we observe as the waiting duration.

3. Once the journey completes and the vessel has completed its port visit, we attribute the duration spent at the waiting stoppage to the port that it visits.

4. Calculating congestion when a vessel finishes its journey is necessary because it allows us to observe the net draft change from the final port visit. This is used to derive a ‘Load’ or ‘Discharge’ stoppage and the previous ‘Waiting to Load/ Discharge’ stoppage type.

5. The duration waited is attributed to the date at which the vessel leaves the port (i.e. the journey has completed).

6. 14 day Moving Average is derived by averaging the waiting duration of all vessels that exited a port, or any child port, within the last 14 days