A planned significant increase in the number of car-carrying ships is set to flood ports with vehicles, making congestion at terminals even worse, the head of the industry’s biggest shipping line has said.
Lasse Kristoffersen, chief executive of Wallenius Wilhelmsen, made the comments in an interview after the Financial Times reported that many European car import terminals had turned into congested “car parks” following a big surge in vehicle exports from China.
The situation would have been even more difficult if there had been enough capacity to ship all the vehicles that manufacturers wanted to, he said. “We’re not able to lift all the volumes that our customers want.”