“If we look at the vessels currently still stuck on either side of the collapsed Baltimore Bridge, some of them are quite large, with a draught (the amount of ship below the water line, and therefore the required depth) deeper than the 12m of the Dali.
These larger vessels will likely need to wait until there’s a totally clear passage through the harbour, which will be majorly disruptive for the ship owner and those waiting on its cargo.
For context, it’s common for even a large ship to remain in port for as little as six hours, with turnaround times especially important if the vessel is carrying perishables, like grain or other foodstuffs.
The vessels still stuck in Baltimore have now been there for three weeks. Any cargo on board will spoil after a given period which will obviously have a knock-on effect for a future itinerary.
This will likely give rise to substantial cargo claims – because receivers will potentially reject shipments, even if they’ve not technically spoiled, due to late delivery.
Other stranded vessels are smaller, and may be able to get out via the outer parts of channel, though it’s not yet clear how long this will take.
Small vessels are able to get in and out near the eastern end of the bridge already, but depth here is as little as 4m, so no way viable for any of the large cargo vessels. Depth through the central channel is over 15m.
The other stranded vessels awaiting entry to the port are largely bulk carriers, again, mid-sized ones. These will essentially all have to wait for passage through the main channel, though again the timing of this is not yet clear.
Of course there are also limited berths, and given it seems the dwell time in the port is comparatively long this will take a while to resolve.
It’s likely we will see a very high number of cargo claims resulting from this, particularly given the majority of the vessels are bulk carriers.
There are also some others like vehicle carriers where customers may have clauses for timely delivery, but interestingly there are very few container vessels impacted. This could in part be to do with itineraries being adjusted to simply skip Baltimore, as they will typically be calling at a lot of ports in the area, so the impact will be limited.”
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