Jam at busiest U.K. port adds to fears
LONDON -- A logjam at the U.K.'s busiest commercial port
ratcheted up concerns last week that the country could see an array of
shortages in the crucial Christmas trading period, including of toys and food.
Worries have mounted over recent weeks that the U.K.'s
economic recovery is being hobbled by widespread shortages, which have been
most clearly seen in long lines at gas stations and some empty shelves at
supermarkets.
The disruption is clearly visible at the east England port
of Felixstowe, the U.K.'s largest commercial port. A bottleneck of containers
at the port, which deals with 36% of U.K. freight container volumes, has been
blamed on a shortage of drivers and prompted shipping company Maersk to divert
some of its biggest vessels.
Peter Wilson, managing director at Cory Brothers shipping
agency, said the U.K. has a "significant pinch point" around truck
drivers and the demand on them to move goods from ports.
"That's a really significant issue for us here in the
U.K.," he told BBC radio.
Asked if it will affect Christmas, he said it has the
"potential," but stressed that the supply chain "will not fail
in the U.K."
However, he said there is potential that some items may not
be available nearer to Christmas, including toys and food.
While other countries around the world have also suffered
significant delays, Britain is facing particularly acute problems at the
moment, with the number of truck drivers in particular way down. The causes are
widespread, but it's clear that the combination of Britain's departure from the
European Union exit and the pandemic prompted many EU workers to leave the U.K.
and head home.
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the
British Retail Consortium, said the congestion at Felixstowe is "yet
another unwanted side effect" of the driver shortage and that
"further disruption may be unavoidable."
Britain's Conservative government has sought to dampen down
on fears there will be a shortage of many goods at Christmas and says it is
accelerating efforts to train more truck drivers and is offering thousands of
short-term visas to foreign drivers, though few appear to have taken the offer
up.
The shortages are coming at a time when the economic
recovery is already losing momentum despite the widespread lifting of
coronavirus restrictions as supply chain issues took their toll.
While the Office of National Statistics reported the economy
managed some modest growth in August as bars, restaurants and festivals
benefited from the first full month without coronavirus restrictions in
England, the 0.4% increase was slightly lower than anticipated. The agency also
revised down July's figure from 0.1% growth to a 0.1% decline as a result of weaker
data from a number of industries -- highlighting the choppy nature of the
economic recovery.
Earlier this year, there had been expectations that the
British economy would have recovered all its covid-19-related losses by the end
of this year. But that now remains open to question following the recent loss
of momentum and the mounting supply chain issues.
As of the end of August, the British economy remained 0.8%
below its pre-coronavirus pandemic level of February 2020.
Also set to weigh on growth in the coming months are rising
inflation, low productivity levels, higher taxes and an uncertain covid-19
backdrop heading into winter.
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