Reports of congestion, delayed berth arrivals, and high yard density across Northern European ports have been widespread since Q2 2024 and are peaking once again. Today we take a dive into London Gateway, which has suffered from a significant reduction of calls in contrast to some of her closest competitors in recent months.
The port's total capacity loss directy tied to omissions amounts to a staggering 738K TEU in Q2 alone, which amounts to an absolute loss of 603K TEU if 'gains' such as inducement calls and delayed arrivals from preceding months are taken into account. By comparison, Antwerp witnessed just 277K TEU of omisson related capacity loss and 70K TEU of absolute loss despite headline-worthy congestion caused by recent strikes, ongoing construction, and major barge delays. We have intentionally zeroed in on omissions in this analysis as blanked sailings are stronger inidicators of obstacles on a service, trade, or macroeconomic scale and cannot be confidently tied to operations at these individual ports.
Trade capacity + schedule reliability in London Gateway - 2024, 2025
On to service-level indicators; Maersk first issued an advisory for their East Coast South America Neo Samba service on May 27, stating that they would be calling Southampton in place of London Gateway for the duration of June. The advisory was re-issued on June 24, confirming that diversions to Southampton would continue for another four weeks. While the March arrivals fared singularly better than other months, the weekly service has executed a total of 15 omissions of London Gateway since the start of 2025 - about 75% of their planned calls.
Other examples of a systemic drop in favor include Gemini’s Asia Northern Europe loop 3, which has also opted to berth in Southampton since April. On a smaller scale, Gemini’s Europe Shuttle 5 that announced London Gateway as an addition to its Antwerp - Tanger Med string as in April, has omitted 12 planned calls since the version change took place and is under review in our database. The Europe - Middle East Indian Ocean Express service operated by partners HMM, ONE, and YML that had advertised London Gateway since December 2024 quietly switched over to Felixstowe with just a couple of vessels making inducement calls to the port during the commencement period.
Average weekly congestion across major UK ports - 2025
We can speculate at length on the complex web of reasoning behind these operational decisions but one doubtless factor here is congestion. While the roller-coaster effect of average weekly congestion is visible for both London Gateway and Southampton in the graph above, Southampton has exhibited levels at or below 40% throughout 2025. London Gateway on the other hand, sees a more dramatic trend with sustained congestion levels of 35% or more for 20 out of 28 weeks this year, or 71% of the past six months. The port of Felixstowe boasts a markedly stable progression compared to both neighbors and hasn’t climbed over 30% since January.
Average weekly congestion across Northern European ports - 2025
Looking at the other congestion-plagued ports of Northern Europe that have made headlines in recent weeks, it’s clear that London Gateway still stands out in the crowd, and not in a good way. Services that highlight this disparity include the CMA’s Panama Direct Line. This RTW Oceania - North America - Europe string has omitted calls to London Gateway a whopping 12 times since April 1 alone and has 6 more omissions communicated throughout July and August. Notably, it has not omitted any of the preceding calls to its first discharge port of Rotterdam, which has likewise suffered from persistent reports of congestion and delayed berth arrivals. MSC’s Asia - Europe Albatros and Europe - North America Canada Express services have both hosted 8 omissions of London Gateway, a pattern not reflected in their other European calls during that period. The Albatros string also includes Felixstowe as its first port of discharge just before London Gateway and has omitted the port just twice since the standalone service commenced in January.
All said and done, these recent troubles should be dully considered in context. The deep water port of London Gateway still boasts a $1.3 billion investment from DP World and an ambitious new infrastructure project aimed at making it the largest port in the United Kingdom, including two new all-electric berths. Despite the see-saw of congestion related capacity loss, eeSea data reveals a recent improvement in both average arrival delays and on-time-performance, demonstrating that congestion does not necessitate a 1:1 relationship with other port performance metrics. Average OTP of 38% (-3 days delay) in May and 52% (-2 days delay) in June were the healthiest stats the port has seen since August 2024. These omissions and more permanent long-term schedule adjustments may in fact prove to be a necessary boon in remedying London Gateway’s reliability in the months ahead while construction for terminal expansion is underway.
eeSea Signals
- CMA - SAFRAN1 | ML - Neo Samba
- GEM - Europe Shuttle 5/Med Belgium Shuttle || HL - MBS | ML - E05
- GEM - Asia Northern Europe loop 3 || HL - NE3 | ML - AE3
- HMM - INX | ONE - IOX | YML - ISE
- CMA - RTWPAN | MFRET - NASP
- MSC - Canada Express
- MSC - Albatros
- London Gateway Inbound/Outbound Calendar
- London Gateway Trade Capacity Index (TCI) and Schedule Reliability Timeline - Tableau Permission Required
- Monthly Traffic + Exceptions to London Gateway - Tableau Permission Required
- Average Weekly Congestion Timeline - Tableau Permission Required