Now is the time to discover the best alternatives to critically congested ports like Rotterdam and Antwerp to minimize disruption to your supply chain. June 2025 marked an unprecedented level of delays in these ports, reaching 48–72 hours and even up to several days.
The challenges of global supply chains are always a shake-up and a test of the efficiency of shippers' and carriers' processes. Let's look at ways to optimize your logistics strategy and proactively manage your shipments by sea, air, and land.
1. Congestion crisis in North European ports
🚨Congestion in the ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Antwerp reached 48–72 hours of delay, which is especially critical during the peak summer and the growing demand for containers in June and July.
What makes the European shipping crisis 2025 worse is that delays are not just in 1 or 2 ports, but in various key European hubs. Vessels arrive at already overcrowded ports, and the existing infrastructure, although modern, cannot handle such a volume of goods.
❓Why is this happening?
- Increased demand for container transportation in the summer
- Operational and technical constraints due to increased cargo handling
- Staff strikes
Average shipping delays in European ports 2025
| Port | Waiting time at the berth (hours) | Causes of delays | Impact on supplies | How to deal? |
| Rotterdam | 44-72 | Strikes, technical restrictions, and overloads | Long delays in cargo transportation | Advanced freight booking for alternative ports |
| Antwerp | 44-80 | Strikes, high demand | Shipping delays | Choose an alternative port for faster custom clearance |
| Hamburg | 40-60 | Congestion due to changes in alliances | Delays in unloading | Schedule adjustments, increase cargo volumes per voyage |
| Bremerhaven | 30-50 | Strikes, overloading | Increased transportation charges | Advanced shipping planning across smaller ports |
📋Tips for shippers:
How to avoid shipping delays in Rotterdam and Antwerp and optimize costs?
- Advanced booking and investment in supply chain management: Booking a freight rate in advance may compensate for possible container shipping disruptions and delays.
- Using alternative European ports for shipping in 2025: Since Antwerpen and Rotterdam are significantly congested, try alternative ports – Hamburg and Bremerhaven are equally large port hubs, but with fewer shipping delays than Rotterdam and Antwerp. Also, Felixstowe has the best connectivity for routes through Northern Europe; Liverpool, Stockholm, and Tallinn for routes to the southwest or across the Baltic Sea; Gdansk and Trieste for Eastern Europe and Central Europe.
- Control over shipping schedules and continuous monitoring: Compare ship sailing schedules for smaller ports where processing is faster and get real-time updates on your cargo to cope with supply chain disruptions in Europe.
Best alternatives to Rotterdam for shipping in 2025
- Felixstowe, UK: efficient operating due to low congestion, waiting time of 10–30 hours;
- Gdansk, Poland: 24–48 hours of waiting time in the port, low congestion.
- Trieste, Italy: 20–40 hours of waiting time, high efficiency of cargo handling, and less congestion. Convenient alternative for multimodal transportation with rail and road modes.
Is a delay of 10–40 hours normal?
Notably, when choosing smaller ports over large logistics hubs, you still need to consider delays. Especially, summer is the peak of demand and load on ports in all regions of the world.
💡In large ports such as Rotterdam and Hamburg, normal processing times do not go beyond 8–12 hours, as more cargo is handled and more workload is carried out. Medium and small ports have less infrastructure and staff, so the delay can be 10-30+ hours, and this is considered normal.
2. Port exclusions and changes in shipping alliances
- Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) noted extended transit times on two of its routes due to port bottlenecks and “difficult market conditions”;
- HMM and other Asian carriers report persistent bottlenecks in ports such as Hamburg (delays up to 6 days);
- Lloyd's List Intelligence and Drewry highlight that the average time of delays in Antwerp increased from 32 hours in early April to 44 hours at the end of May. This represents an increase of 37%. Delays are likely to continue at least until the end of the peak transportation season in August 2025.
⚓️Large shipping lines such as Maersk are restructuring trade routes, excluding congested ports (Rotterdam) from the chain and prioritizing less congested ports (Hamburg).
💰Changes in shipping alliance operations also include Maersk's launch of an additional fee for domestic transshipment as early as May 2025. The fee is charged at EUR 10 per TEU and applies to road, rail, barge, or intermodal transport serving Rotterdam and Antwerp.
These measures aim to minimize disruptions on long-distance land routes, thereby maintaining the level of transportation capacity.
❓Why is this happening?
- Urgent need to optimize transportation within alliances (seasonality and response to delays in port hubs)
- Overloading of large ports and reduced efficiency of container handling
| Shipping line | Routes redirection | Benefits for carriers | Impact on ports | Tariff changes |
| Maersk | Excluding Rotterdam, redirecting to Hamburg | Reduced processing costs | Overloading in the Hamburg port | +15% |
| CMA CGM | Port network expansion in Eastern Europe | Increase efficiency within new alliances | Port congestion, new routes | Minimal impact on costs |
| MSC | Exclude the most congested ports | Reduced logistics costs | Risk of delays in new ports | Slight increase in shipping costs |
📋Tips for shippers and carriers:
- Keep an eye on schedules: Always be on the lookout for changes in the shipment schedules via Rotterdam and Hamburg, and adjust your supplies accordingly.
- Compare rerouting costs: With the Logistics Explorer, shippers can compare offers from reliable carriers with detailed rate breakdowns to book the best freight rate. In turn, carriers can promote their rates for sea, air, and land transportation with transparent charges.
3. Shipping restrictions: The right time for land logistics
🚢 Impact of Rhine water levels on shipping in 2025 is that barges and container ships have faced limited waterway capacity. This has significantly reduced the amount of cargo that can be transported in the region.
❓Why is this happening?
- Drought on the Rhine River
- Decreased water levels on other nearby rivers that are important for the transportation of goods in Western Europe
📋Tips for shippers and carriers:
- Increase the cargo volume per voyage: You can reduce your sea transportation costs by increasing the amount of cargo you can put on each container ship or barge.
- Advanced planning of barge transportation: Try to plan your barge shipments in small terms before the water level drops again. This can reduce the cost of further transportation of the cargo.
- Rail and truck transport alternatives in Europe: Especially for high-priority cargo on intra-European routes, rail and road transport should be considered as backup options.
Find alternatives: Mitigating delays in European transport routes
| Alternative transport mode | Alternative port | Pros | Cons | Costs |
| Railways | Bremerhaven, Hamburg, Lyon | Speed, stability | Higher transportation costs | +10–20% |
| Trucks | Eastern European ports, especially in Poland | Flexibility, reduced time | Higher tariffs, traffic jams | +15% |
| Mediterranean small ports | Barcelona, Genoa, Marseille | Faster service, less congestion | Limited load capacity | -5–10% |
Be ready for demand shifts and increased tariffs
Summer logistics peak demand and increased freight loads cause higher transportation costs and charges for shipping services. Take a look at the main changes and impact on the transportation budget:
| Month | Expected demand (compared to the previous year) | Anticipated impact on tariffs | Cost of delivery |
| June | +20% | +10–15% | +10–12% |
| July | +25% | +15–20% | +15% |
| August | +30% | +20–30% | +20% |
Track your shipments: Visibility on any changes
How to get instant alerts about any shipping shifts — route changes, delays, customs events, and others? Manage up to 25 exceptions for your shipments for up-to-the-minute info on your cargo movement. All of it is possible with the Container Tracking by SeaRates:
- Instant tracking by container, BL, and booking number;
- Real-time updates from more than 200 worldwide shipping lines and leasing companies in one tool;
- Details about routes, transit time, Predictive ETA & other logistics events, voyages, and more;
- Forecast potential delays and manage 25 shipment exceptions.
Currently, effective logistics planning is crucial.
Find out more about Container Tracking web integration and API connection for proactively executing your logistics
Interested in smooth logistics solutions tailored to your requirements? You’re always welcome to contact the SeaRates team at [email protected]. We are expecting to assist you with your current shipping needs.
