UK retailers and logistics companies have warned that the supply chain disruptions at Felixstowe are spreading to other container ports in the country and will exacerbate Christmas supply shortages.
Grant Liddell, business development director at Metro Shipping, a Midlands-based logistics company, said the build-up of containers at Felixstowe, the country’s largest container port, was also affecting London Gateway and would soon hit Southampton.
The backlog at the East Anglian facility has already forced shipping groups, including Maersk and MSC, to divert larger vessels to continental European ports and load UK-bound cargo on to smaller craft so they can access other British ports.