All boxed up - will supply chain challenges cancel British Christmas?

Supply chain woes caused by Brexit and Covid-19 have cast a shadow over whether there will be presents under the tree in UK homes this year.

By Penny Thomas

November 19, 2021

The Port of Felixstowe handles around 2000 ships per year. Credit: Shutterstock

The UK has seen its homegrown truck driving workforce thinning out over the years, creating a shortage which until recently was bridged by European workers.

Immigration changes due to Brexit, coupled with drivers returning to their home countries during the pandemic are amongst the reasons for reduced stock in UK shops. In October the lack of qualified drivers bit when petrol stations across the country ran out of fuel.

The UK imports most of what it consumes and so as an island nation is dependent on its ports to fill fridges, heat homes and bring in the many consumables made in the east and absorbed by the west.

The shortage of truck drivers working in the UK is having a knock-on effect on the country’s port and the wider supply chain. Port of Felixstowe in the south east is the country’s busiest port and handles 48% of its containerised trade. It was met with considerable set backs last month when shipping company Maersk temporarily removed Felixstowe from eight of its vessels’ schedules.

The world’s biggest box shipping company said at the time: “The UK is currently suffering from a lack of truck drivers which is causing several challenges, including terminal congestion in key ports with limited haulage options.”

On 28 October it said that it will divert its ME7 service away from Hutchison Ports-operated Felixstowe to London Gateway for an “interim period”. According to London Gateway’s vessel schedule, Maersk’s ME7 service will continue to call at the DP World-operated port until well into December.

It was also reported in October that some of the larger ships scheduled to call at Felixstowe were diverted to Rotterdam and Antwerp. From there containers can be transferred to smaller, feeder vessels that can be accommodated at smaller UK ports.

The truck driver shortage left thousands of containers stranded at the port’s quayside with no drivers available to move them on, causing significant congestion problems. Further, these increased container dwell times resulted in Felixstowe requesting that empty boxes (the majority are empty when they leave the UK) be sent via alternative UK ports for their return back into the global supply chain.

This has fed into the global container shortage, resulting in significant volumes of the world’s containers stuck in Europe and the US, when they are needed in the east.

Related: How port congestion impacts your delays

Felixstowe for its part, sourced alternative inland storage areas, with hundreds of containers spotted in a field 42 km from the terminal, one news source reported earlier this month.

Risk management software and service company Russell Group, however, said in an October statement that “just under $2 billion dollars of UK trade imports will be impacted in the run-up to Christmas if the current port delays at Felixstowe continue into December”. It added that when there is a blockage at any major port “there is disruption across the value-chain for consumers and businesses alike”.

The diverted vessels may account for the dip in the number of vessels at anchorage. According to MarineTraffic maritime analytics, there was a 20.55% drop in the volume of containerships waiting at the Harwich Anchorage (where vessels wait for berths at Ipswich, Harwich, Felixstowe and Mistley) between 1 October and 1 November this year over last year.

MarineTraffic data also illustrates a clear drop in containership arrivals this year over the same period, with 164 container vessels arriving in 2020, and only 58 in 2021 - a drop of 64%.

With regards to the main origin and destination countries of vessels, MarineTraffic data tells a similar story although the gap in the figures is less stark.

In 2020, 140 vessels called at Felixstowe with their last port of call the Netherlands, most likely Rotterdam. In 2021 there were 112 vessels from the same country, for the same period of 1 October to 1 November representing a 20% drop.

Interestingly, fewer vessels left Felixstowe destined for China in that same period, numbers that could be attributed in part to slowing Chinese imports and Felixstowe’s decision to direct empty containers away from its terminals.

Felixstowe Port

Peter Wilson, managing director at Cory Brothers shipping agency, told Sky that the shortage of truck drivers has the "potential" to affect Christmas but believes the supply chain "will not fail in the UK".

“Be sensible,” he was quoted as saying on BBC Radio 4, “think ahead, plan appropriately, and order your Christmas goods and the items that you need in a timely fashion to ensure that you have them".

It seems likely that there will be enough presents to go around, and a turkey on the table this year, but the true spirit of Christmas will be lost if the UK is forced into another lockdown. As Covid-19 infections across the country pick up again, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that “we cannot afford to be complacent” and that “clearly we cannot rule anything out”, when it comes to imposing a lockdown over Christmas.

Penny Thomas