Congestion at Asia’s container ports may not fully clear until well into 2027, with roughly 3 million TEUs of capacity currently absorbed by delays.
According to Danish analysis firm Sea-Intelligence, 8.5% of the global containership fleet is impacted, and, based on recovery patterns following the pandemic and the initial Red Sea crisis, the congestion could take seven to 10 months to return to the relatively low levels last seen in June 2025.
Repeated typhoons have battered major Far East gateways, while port omissions and vessel bunching are pushing delays into transshipment hubs and downstream ports across Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Freightos has separately warned that backlogs could persist well beyond Golden Week. Analysts describe the disruption as cascading rather than isolated: when carriers skip a congested gateway, redirected boxes and vessels frequently overwhelm neighboring terminals, creating fresh bottlenecks across the network.
IAM Member Impact: Members should plan for extended transit delays and elevated freight costs, with the Chinese New Year period in early 2027 identified as a likely additional pressure point. Members should build in longer lead times and monitor which specific gateways and transshipment hubs are most affected, since congestion is spreading unpredictably between ports rather than staying contained to individual locations.
Source: Splash247