tens of millions of pounds worth of goods have taken the place of the luxury liners, Devon Live reports. Industry experts have told Devon Live it is likely that Christmas stock from China for shops all over the UK is bobbing on the waves just off the English Riviera.
The three ships – HMM’s Oslo, St Petersburg and Le Havre – are all on their way to Rotterdam. The Oslo and Le Havre have come from China, while the St Petersburg’s journey began in Singapore. All three of them last docked in Algeciras in Spain before heading for Devon. They were all built in 2020 for South Korean firm Hyundai Merchant Marine and sail under Panamanian flags.
Each can carry around 20,000 of the 20-foot containers packed with goods, but they are currently unable to dock in Rotterdam to offload their cargo and are waiting off South Devon for a chance to get a berth alongside in the huge Dutch container port.
With fewer vessels at sea, the cost of shopping has escalated.
A container which would have cost 900 dollars can now fetch more than 8,000 dollars, meaning the up-to-65,000 containers on board the three HMM ships could be worth more than 500 million dollars, before even adding in the value of their contents.
The containers are used to bring anything ‘Made in China’ to the UK, meaning the ships could be carrying household items, clothes, heavy machinery and much more.
Industry experts say the timing of the shipments means it is almost certain that millions of pounds worth of Christmas stock for UK shops is still in transit, and much of it could well be at sea off South Devon right now.
