China’s major container ports are facing significant congestion just weeks before the country’s Golden Week holiday, creating another layer of uncertainty for businesses moving goods between Asia and the UK.
What initially looks like a short-term problem caused by weather disruption and the approaching holiday could have much longer-lasting consequences. With vessels already waiting several days to berth, container yards operating under pressure and shipping lines reducing scheduled capacity, delays at Chinese ports have the potential to continue working their way through global supply chains well beyond October.
For UK businesses that rely on Chinese suppliers, manufacturers or customers, the message is clear: this isn’t simply a case of waiting for Golden Week to finish. Supply chains need to be managed proactively, with flexibility built in wherever possible.
What is happening at China’s ports?
China’s container network has been under increasing pressure throughout the summer.
A succession of typhoons has caused repeated closures and interruptions at major ports, including Shanghai and Ningbo. The difficulty is that each closure doesn’t necessarily start from a clean slate. When a port is already dealing with a backlog, another weather-related shutdown can add more vessels and containers to an already congested system.
As of early September, Kuehne+Nagel reported a seven-day average vessel waiting time at Shanghai of around 4.72 days, with some individual terminals experiencing waits of more than nine days. At Ningbo, the seven-day average was around 3.58 days, while yard utilisation at one terminal had exceeded 90%.
More than four million TEU of containership capacity has been caught up in global port congestion, with the figure having risen even higher during August as multiple disruptions hit the network at the same time. The immediate delays are only part of the problem.
Once a containership falls several days behind schedule in Shanghai or Ningbo, that delay can follow the vessel through its subsequent port calls and rotations. A ship that leaves one port late may arrive late at the next, miss its scheduled berth or connection, and then create further delays elsewhere. In other words, the original disruption can keep travelling long after the weather event or port closure has ended.
Golden Week could make the situation worse
China’s Golden Week runs from 1 to 7 October 2026.
Under normal circumstances, the holiday creates a predictable reduction in manufacturing and shipping activity. Factories close or reduce production, workers take holidays and cargo volumes tend to fall. Shipping lines often respond by cancelling scheduled services, known as blank sailings, to avoid operating vessels that are not expected to be full. This year is different.
There is already a substantial backlog moving through the system, while carriers are simultaneously planning capacity reductions around the holiday.
Maersk and MSC have announced Golden Week-related changes and blank sailings on Asia-Europe services. Drewry is also expecting a number of scheduled sailings to be cancelled around the holiday period. That creates an unusual combination – there may be fewer new orders moving during the holiday, but there is already plenty of delayed cargo waiting to move. At the same time, fewer scheduled sailings mean fewer opportunities to clear that backlog.
Linerlytica has warned that the existing cargo backlog could keep vessels highly utilised even through Golden Week, meaning the usual seasonal slowdown may provide less relief than businesses would normally expect.
The bigger problem: reliability
For businesses, port congestion isn’t only about whether a container is delayed by three days or seven days. It’s about whether you can trust the estimated arrival date in the first place.
Sea-Intelligence reported that global container vessel schedule reliability fell to 56.4% in July, its lowest level of 2026. The average delay for vessels that arrived late was 6.06 days. Asian ports were particularly badly affected. Shanghai’s schedule reliability fell to just 21%, while Ningbo fell to 34.6%.
For a UK business, that uncertainty can quickly create a chain reaction. A delayed container could mean stock doesn’t arrive in time for a customer order. A manufacturer may be waiting for components before production can continue. A retailer could miss a seasonal sales window. A construction business could be waiting for materials that are already committed to a project. When businesses can’t rely on the original shipping schedule, they may have to make expensive decisions at short notice – that could mean paying for alternative freight, sourcing stock elsewhere, holding additional inventory or rearranging transport and warehouse capacity.
China isn’t the only pressure point
The disruption at China’s ports is happening against a much wider backdrop of uncertainty across global shipping networks.
Asia-Europe services are being affected by a changing Suez Canal and Cape of Good Hope routing picture. After years of avoiding the Red Sea because of security concerns, major carriers are now beginning to return some services to the Suez route. Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have announced the return of additional Asia-Europe services through the Suez Canal, with the shorter route potentially reducing transit times compared with sailing around Africa. However, both companies continue to stress that decisions remain dependent on the security situation.
That creates another variable for businesses planning international freight. A route that was considered too risky or impractical several months ago may now become an option again. Equally, changing security conditions could cause carriers to alter those decisions again.
The Panama Canal is facing its own capacity pressures. Reduced rainfall and water levels have already led the Panama Canal Authority to reduce available daily transit slots, with further adjustments introduced in September. These issues matter because global shipping is a connected network – a disruption doesn’t have to happen on your particular route to affect your shipment. Changes in vessel positioning, container availability, port congestion and carrier schedules in one part of the world can have consequences much further along the supply chain.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to look at individual shipping routes in isolation.
The long-term effects could be more significant than the immediate delays
The immediate concern for businesses is whether a particular shipment will arrive late, but the longer-term concern is what happens when repeated disruptions begin to change how the network operates.
When vessels spend longer waiting at ports, effective shipping capacity falls. When routes change, transit times change. When carriers cancel sailings, available space becomes harder to secure. When containers and vessels are in the wrong places, equipment availability can become an issue elsewhere. These effects can feed into freight rates and make planning more difficult. They can also encourage businesses to hold more stock as a buffer against uncertainty, tying up working capital that might otherwise be used elsewhere.
This is why the current disruption should not simply be viewed as a Golden Week problem. Even once congestion at individual Chinese ports begins to ease, the effects of delayed vessels, altered rotations, blank sailings and changed routing decisions can continue through subsequent weeks and months.
What does this mean for UK importers?
China is a major trading partner for the UK. In 2025, China accounted for £69.7 billion of UK goods imports, representing 11.1% of total UK goods imports. In the 12 months to June 2026, the value had risen to £72.4 billion. That exposure means disruption at Chinese ports can affect a wide range of UK businesses, from retailers and manufacturers to wholesalers, distributors and construction companies.
For importers, the immediate risks include longer transit times, rolled bookings, missed connections, additional storage costs and uncertainty over when stock will actually arrive. There can also be a financial knock-on effect.
If stock arrives late, a business may need to pay for expedited transport on another shipment. If containers are held up, additional storage, demurrage or detention charges may arise. If inventory levels fall too far, businesses may find themselves paying a premium for alternative supply. And there is another issue that is easy to overlook: cash flow. Goods that are stuck at sea or waiting at a port aren’t necessarily generating revenue for the business, but the costs associated with purchasing, transporting and financing those goods don’t necessarily disappear.
What about UK exporters?
The impact isn’t limited to businesses bringing goods into Britain. UK exporters sending products to China or using China as part of a wider Asian distribution network can also be affected.
Congestion can make it more difficult to secure the required vessel space, while schedule changes can affect planned deliveries and connections. Businesses exporting from the UK should also be aware that disruption in one direction can affect the availability of containers and vessels in another.
Container shipping networks depend on equipment being continually repositioned around the world. When vessels and containers are delayed in one region, that can create availability problems elsewhere. So even if your goods aren’t travelling from China to the UK, disruption within the wider network can still affect your shipment.
The hidden cost of disruption
A delayed shipment doesn’t always produce an obvious invoice labelled “port congestion”. The real cost can be spread across the business.
It might be additional warehouse space because goods arrive at the wrong time. It might be overtime to catch up with production. It could be an emergency air freight shipment to prevent a customer order from being missed, or additional transport costs when the original delivery plan has to be rearranged.
For some businesses, the biggest cost could be lost sales.
A retailer waiting for seasonal stock has a very different problem from a manufacturer waiting for a non-critical component. Understanding which shipments genuinely matter most is therefore an important part of managing disruption.
This is where looking at the supply chain as a whole becomes more useful than simply tracking individual containers.
Why supply chains need flexibility
The events unfolding across global shipping networks highlight an important lesson: resilience doesn’t necessarily mean having a completely different supply chain ready to go. It means having enough flexibility to respond when the original plan stops working.
A supply chain built around a single supplier, one shipping route, one port or one fixed transit time can work perfectly well when everything goes according to plan. The difficulty comes when several things change at once.
A port closes because of severe weather. A vessel is rolled to a later sailing. A carrier changes its route. A canal introduces restrictions. A container misses its connection. Suddenly, a supply chain that looked efficient on paper can become extremely difficult to manage.
Flexible supply chains give businesses more options.
That could mean using more than one supplier, considering alternative ports, holding appropriate levels of safety stock, having different transport modes available or identifying which shipments genuinely require the fastest possible route.
It doesn’t mean every business needs to maintain expensive contingency arrangements for every possible scenario. Instead, businesses should understand where flexibility would make the biggest difference.
The most important question isn’t necessarily: “What could go wrong?” It’s: “If something does go wrong, what options do we have?”
Visibility is the first step to resilience
You can’t respond effectively to disruption that you can’t see coming. For businesses moving international freight, that means looking beyond the original booking confirmation and keeping an eye on the wider situation.
That includes vessel schedules, port conditions, carrier announcements, revised ETAs, supplier readiness and potential alternative sailings. Early visibility gives businesses more choices.
If you know a shipment is likely to be delayed several days before the original delivery date, there is time to consider alternatives. If you only discover the problem when the customer is already asking where their order is, the available options are likely to be more expensive and more limited.
Good supply chain visibility isn’t about predicting the future perfectly, tt’s about giving yourself enough information to make better decisions.
Scenario planning: what happens if the plan changes?
It can also be useful to consider different scenarios before disruption occurs. What happens if a shipment is three days late? What if it is two weeks late? What if the sailing is cancelled altogether? What if your usual route becomes unavailable? What if a key supplier can’t meet its original production date?
Scenario planning doesn’t mean expecting the worst. It means understanding the consequences before you’re under pressure to make a decision.
It can help businesses identify which shipments need contingency plans, which goods require additional stock and where alternative transport or suppliers could make the biggest difference.
What should UK businesses do now?
If your business imports from, exports to or relies on supply chains connected to China and Asia, now is a good time to review your plans.
The aim isn’t to predict every disruption. It’s to make sure you’re not making your first contingency decision after the problem has already happened.
How Hawley Logistics can help
At Hawley Logistics, we understand that international freight isn’t simply about moving a container from A to B. It’s about making sure the movement of goods works for the wider business. When disruption occurs, having an experienced logistics partner means you have someone who can look at the available options, help you understand the implications and work with you to find the most practical solution.
Whether you’re importing from China, exporting to international markets or managing a more complex supply chain, Hawley can help you plan around changing schedules, capacity constraints and unexpected disruption. That could involve reviewing your current freight arrangements, looking at alternative options or helping you plan future shipments with greater resilience in mind.
The earlier you start planning, the more options you have.
China’s current port congestion may eventually ease, but the lesson for UK businesses is much broader. Global supply chains are exposed to weather, geopolitical events, changing shipping routes, port capacity and carrier decisions. No business can eliminate all of those risks.
What you can do is make sure your supply chain is prepared to deal with them.
If you’re concerned about upcoming shipments from China, Golden Week or the resilience of your wider international supply chain, talk to Hawley Logistics. We can help you understand your options and plan ahead rather than simply reacting when disruption reaches your door.
