Singapore port congestion, September 2026

What stood out

• Container ships waited longest (21.5 h), cargo ships the shortest (15.6 h).
• About one ship in 8 was still at anchor after 72 hours.
• A further 1,098 stays at bunkering anchorages (median 17.8 h) are left out of the headline figure.
• Another 429 ships waited outside the port area (median ≥72 h), in grounds that lie beyond Singapore's own waters and are reported separately. Those grounds have only been watched since 20 Sept, so that covers part of the month.

Key figures

Median time at anchorage (excl. bunkering and lay-up)

18.3 h

Ships still at anchor after 72 hours

13%

Completed anchorage stays

5,828

Completed stays on a typical day

194.3

Ships at anchor at any one time

220

Daily median time at anchorage

Longest days

• 23 Sept: 22.3 h median, 209 stays
• 28 Sept: 22.0 h median, 206 stays
• 25 Sept: 21.0 h median, 207 stays

By vessel type

Reported separately

• Bunkering anchorages: 17.8 h median, 1098 stays (not in the headline).
• Ship-to-ship transfer areas: 18.1 h median, 885 stays (included in the headline).
• Waiting grounds outside the port area: ≥72 h median, 429 stays (not in the headline, observed from 20 Sept).

Other ports in September 2026

• Rotterdam: 19.9 h
• Los Angeles: 20.8 h
• Yokohama: 13.7 h
• Busan: 15.9 h

Anchorage Index for September 2026

What shapes anchorage time in Singapore

Singapore is the world’s largest bunkering port, and many ships anchor there without loading or discharging cargo: to take on fuel, change crew, collect supplies, or wait for orders. Bunkering anchorages are left out of the headline figure, but ships waiting for orders or carrying out ship-to-ship transfers are included, so Singapore’s anchorage time runs well above its berth queue. Tankers make up the largest share of anchored ships.

Questions about Singapore in September 2026

How long do ships wait at anchor in Singapore?

In September 2026, commercial ships spent a median of 18.3 h at anchor in Singapore, based on 5,828 completed stays. One in ten ships was still at anchor after 72 hours. Bunkering anchorages are not included.

Which ships wait longest at anchor in Singapore?

In September 2026: LNG carriers 25.1 h, container ships 21.5 h, tankers 21.1 h, bulk carriers 19.3 h, cargo ships 15.6 h (median time at anchor, types with at least 20 stays).

Is Singapore more congested than other major ports?

Singapore had the 3rd longest median time at anchorage of the 5 ports PortInsight tracks in September 2026. Among the others, the longest was Los Angeles (20.8 h) and the shortest Yokohama (13.7 h). Ports use their anchorages differently, so each is best compared with its own history.

How many ships are at anchor in Singapore?

In September 2026, an average of 220 commercial ships were at anchor in the port area at any one time. That is the total time ships spent at anchor divided by the length of the month, so it is measured from the same stays as the median rather than counted separately.

Is Singapore port congested right now?

This report covers September 2026. For current conditions, the live Singapore tracker on PortInsight shows ships at anchor, time at anchorage and the congestion level, updated continuously from AIS data.

How to read this report

Median time at anchorage

Half of the ships spent less time at anchor than this, half spent more. Unlike an average, a few very long stays do not pull it up.

1 in 10 ships waited longer than

The 90th percentile. It shows how long the slowest tenth of ships waited, which is what matters when you plan for a bad case rather than a typical one.

Still at anchor after 72 hours

Stays are tracked for at most 72 hours. Where enough ships reach that limit, the 90th percentile would simply read "72 h" for every busy port, so the share of ships that reached it is shown instead.

Ship stays per day

How many ships completed a stay at anchor on a typical measured day. The median says how long ships stayed; this says how many there were, which is the difference between a busy port and a slow one.

Ship stays

Each time a commercial ship anchored in the port area and later left, counted in the month it left. A ship that anchors twice counts twice.

Not the same as the berth queue

Ships anchor for many reasons besides waiting for a berth: orders, fuel, crew, supplies or a tidal window. This report measures all time at anchor, which makes it a different measure from the berth-queue figures other sources publish, not simply a higher one — it reads higher where ships anchor for other reasons, and lower where they wait outside the monitored area.

Coverage and data quality

5,828 completed stays, measured on 30 of 30 days; 13% of stays reached the 72-hour tracking limit and count as 72 hours; 0% of eligible stays were dropped because the vessel's length was never reported.

How these figures are measured

Measured from public AIS data: completed stays at anchor inside the port area by commercial vessels (IMO number, 100 m and longer), by the month the vessel left the anchorage. Bunkering and lay-up anchorages are excluded from the headline and bunkering is reported separately. Stays are tracked for at most 72 hours; longer stays count as 72 hours, so P90 values at the cap are shown as "≥72 h". The figure covers all time at anchorage, not only the queue for a berth, so it is a different measure from the berth-queue figures published elsewhere and can read higher or lower than them.

The series starts in September 2026, when PortInsight moved to a new AIS data provider. Earlier months are not comparable and are not published.

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