Vessel time in port is the figure shipping lines see. Cargo still stuck on a road, a railway or a border crossing does not enter that measure. African ports are now judged mainly by how long a container ship spends in port, not by the cost of reaching a mine, a factory or a market inland. The World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence Container Port Performance Index for 2025 ranks about 400 ports on the time between arrival at anchorage and departure from the berth. Tange

Port dwell, not sea distance, now sets how long inventory is frozen. A global congestion headline does not tell a plant whether to raise stock. It tells the plant that arrival and availability have come apart. The cost of that gap depends on the SKU, the lane, and what stops if the part is late. Buffer stock is not the only lever Melissa Irmen, Director of Advocacy at the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones, replied in writing to The Supply Chainer that the first ques

More than four million TEU now sit at berth, above the 2022 peak. That pile does not only lengthen a voyage. It takes ships out of rotation, breaks weekly strings, and turns a published schedule into a guess. Suez returns are putting some capacity back into the network at the same time. The two effects cancel each other on paper and leave shippers with slower, less reliable space. Effective capacity is not published capacity In a written reply to The Supply Chainer, Casper El