Source: Notteboom T.E. Pallis A.A. and Rodrigue J-P. (2021). Disruptions and Resilience in Container Shipping, Ports and Supply chains: The COVID-19 pandemic vs. the 2008-2009 Financial Crisis. Maritime Economics and Logistics, doi.org/10.1057/s41278-020-00180-5.
In 2020 the maximum size of the container vessels deployed at each port continued to increase despite the pandemic as shipping lines continue to exploit economies of scale. As a result, terminal operations and the entire maritime supply chain faced additional pressure as they hosted fewer vessel calls with substantially more cargoes to be handled per port call. Overall, ports have witnessed a rise in the average call size. In the first half of 2020, quite a few call size records have been broken. For example, 34,263 TEU was handled on MSC Isabella calling the port of Los Angeles (June 2020), 21,500 TEU handled on MSC Kalina in Singapore (April 2020), and 18,059 TEU handled on MSC Mina calling Antwerp (June 2020).