According to new data published by VesselBot, vessels spent an average of 7 hours at anchorage per port call in 2025. But that overall figure hides wide regional and seasonal differences. In Northern Europe, average anchorage time stood at 5.7 hours, while in the Mediterranean it reached 10.5 hours. Conditions also worsened over the year, with the average rising from 6.2 hours in July to 8.4 hours in December.
The sharpest deterioration came in the final quarter. VesselBot says anchorage times rose by 32.9% in the Mediterranean and by 39% in Northern Europe in Q4 compared with the same period a year earlier. By contrast, the U.S. West Coast was the only major region to improve overall port efficiency.
For European freight operators, that matters because delays at ports rarely stay contained within the port itself. Less predictable vessel handling can quickly spill over into container availability, warehouse planning, onward trucking schedules and delivery reliability further inland. For companies moving goods out of ports by road, that kind of volatility makes day-to-day planning harder and cost control more fragile.
The report is based on data from 660 container terminals worldwide and 6,393 container vessels. It argues that port performance is becoming increasingly fragmented, with region, season and vessel size all playing a bigger role in how long ships spend waiting and how efficiently terminals operate.
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Averages no longer tell the full story
Vessel size also affected port conditions in very different ways. Feeder vessels spent an average of 7.7 hours at anchorage and 16.4 hours at berth per port call, while very large container ships averaged 3.9 hours at anchorage but 34.2 hours at berth. According to the report, this creates very different operational and emissions profiles depending on the vessel segment.
The environmental impact was also substantial. Total port-call emissions across the tracked fleet exceeded 12 million tonnes of CO₂e in 2025, with 22% generated at anchorage and 78% at berth.
The wider warning is that past averages may no longer be reliable for planning. For freight operators and cargo owners, port performance is becoming harder to treat as a stable baseline. In practice, 2025 appears to have reinforced a trend towards a more fragmented and less predictable port environment.
