Shipping giants warn ports and trucks could hold up deliveries and push up prices
Global shipping demand remains strong despite geopolitical turmoil, but port and trucking bottlenecks are increasing congestion and putting upward pressure on freight rates.
AbJimroe
Geopolitical turmoil hasn't dented global shipping, but port and trucking capacity constraints could mean delivery delays and higher prices, the heads of two of the world's biggest shipping firms told CNBC on Thursday.
Vincent Clerc, chief executive officer of Denmark's Maersk, said that despite the war in Iran and the impact of U.S. tariffs, there had been "incredible resilience of demand and ... incredible resilience of the economy which has led volumes to continue completely unabated."
However, bottlenecks on the land — from port terminals and cargo facilities to road and rail links — are causing congestion and pushing freight rates higher, he said.
"What we're seeing now is, as a result of underinvestment in landside infrastructure for the last 15 years and continued growth in traded volumes, we're starting to hit or stretch the limitations of what landside can actually cope with."
Along with the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, issues such as low water levels on Europe's Rhine and challenges with the Panama Canal are pushing more cargo onto roads. However, trucking capability in many markets is struggling to keep up, Clerc added.
"That is impacting freight rates. It's going to take time to catch up on 15 years of underinvestment... we will see volatility for sure, more and more bottlenecks," he said.
Rolf Habben Jansen, head of Germany's Hapag-Lloyd, told CNBC that shipping volumes had been "remarkably strong," and said: "The balance of supply and demand is much more reasonable than people anticipated."
He also said that, in Asian hubs such as Shanghai, ports were struggling to cope with demand, causing delays.
Maersk shares popped 7% in morning European trade Thursday after the company hiked its 2026 earnings guidance for the second time this year.
The company reported preliminary underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $3 billion for April to June. That's well above the $2.04 billion expected by analysts in an LSEG-compiled consensus.
Hapag-Lloyd shares nudged 0.7% higher after the company's results, which showed higher volumes and spot rates but a $600 million cost hit related to the Middle East conflict, primarily due to fuel and energy.
