A RECENT meeting of the Transport for NSW Empty Container Working Group has provided a snapshot of performance in the empty container supply chain.

The group met on Wednesday 12 October, with members having previously identified performance targets for the supply chain.

Considering data from August this year, the group observed a 24% year-on-year increase in import volumes and an 18% increase in export volumes.

“The load-discharge ratio for August 2022 was 0.94, down from the load-discharge ratio of 0.98 for August 2021,” Transport for NSW said in an update to freight stakeholders.

The group found shipping line container dwell times were at 9.3 days from June to August 2022.

“This was a decrease compared to shipping line container dwell times from June to August 2021 at 11.5 days,” the update said.

“Transport for NSW have not received complete dwell time data from any of the ECPs since July 2021.”

Aggregated data for August 2022 indicates overall slot utilisation is at 53% at empty container parks across Sydney.

The slot utilisation figure dropped to 35% after hours (between 1700 and 0500) and to 5% on weekends.

“Data indicates slot availability for direct returns of empty containers to stevedore terminals and Cargolink for August 2022 – approximately 41% overall utilisation, and 15.4% utilisation after-hours,” the update said in regard to direct return storage.

Another key observation from the working group concerned provision of pre-advice information (electronic delivery order) in empty container park booking systems.

“The overall provision of EDO remained consistent at 72% for August 2022, an improvement on the same period last year where provision of EDO was 70%.”

The Empty Container Working Group plans to meet again on Wednesday 14 December.