Cranes on Pause: Sines Dockworkers Stall Portugal's Supply Chain

Few stories illustrate Portugal’s tug-of-war between labour rights and global trade quite like the slowdown now gripping Terminal XXI in Sines. Dockworkers have cut activity during the final two hours of every shift this month, forcing most of the towering cranes to sit idle and leaving shipping lines juggling revised arrival times. For foreign residents who order goods from abroad—or run businesses that depend on just-in-time logistics—the dispute offers a crash course in how quickly an industrial quarrel can ripple through everyday life.

Why the cranes keep pausing

Perched on the Alentejo coast about 90 minutes south of Lisbon, the Port of Sines handles nearly half of Portugal’s container traffic. Its flagship berth, Terminal XXI, operates 12 ship-to-shore cranes powerful enough to unload the world’s largest boxships. Yet during the first strike window from 11 to 17 August only 3 to 4 cranes were serviceable per shift, according to the union SIEAP, leaving vessels waiting at anchor. A second stoppage is pencilled in for 25 to 31 August and is expected to follow the same pattern—partial but highly disruptive.

What the dockworkers want

SIEAP says its members accepted unusual shift patterns when pandemic demand surged but now want those emergency timetables replaced by a predictable annual roster. Among the headline demands: clearer career progression, recognition of birthday leave, and a wage grid that rises faster than the official consumer-price index. Union officials accuse PSA Sines and labour-supply affiliate LaborSines of “persistent silence” since a wider strike in May–June ended without a settlement. They argue that withholding overtime—then resuming it as a goodwill gesture—failed to draw management back to the table, prompting the current work-to-rule.

PSA’s counter-arguments

The Singapore-based operator says it already indexes base pay to inflation every January, with extra increments in April tied to competence bands agreed years ago. As for shifts, PSA points to a July ruling by the Évora appeal court affirming the legality of its 5-team rota. “We remain open to constructive dialogue,” the company insists, emphasising that full-blown stoppages would jeopardise customer confidence at the height of the Mediterranean export season.

Ripple effects beyond the docks

For importers, the immediate pain is measured in demurrage bills and contingency trucking. In 2019 a shorter strike diverted nine vessels and cost more than €9 M in lost revenue; current figures will not surface for weeks, but freight forwarders in Porto and Madrid already report cargo being rerouted to Valencia or Tangier-Med. That matters to expats who rely on online retailers shipping from Asia or the US, because many parcels land in Europe via Sines before moving on by rail.

Will expansion plans stay on track?

Terminal XXI is midway through a €300 M upgrade aimed at lifting annual capacity from 2.3 M to 4.1 M TEU by 2028. Phases 3 and 4 call for another 804 m of quay and 18 ha of yard, but civil-works contractors need uninterrupted windows to install new crane rails. PSA warned as far back as 2019 that sustained labour unrest could force it to “re-evaluate” capital outlays. Such a delay would complicate government rhetoric that Sines is Europe’s next energy gateway and could weaken AICEP’s pitch to multinational investors.

What this means for companies importing to Portugal

Supply-chain advisers tell foreign-owned SMEs to budget for longer lead times through at least September, especially on trans-Atlantic routes. Fashion brands with “drop” collections may prefer air freight via Lisbon, while wine exporters in the Alentejo are eyeing refrigerated trucking to Setúbal as a stop-gap. Customs rules do not change, but clearing agents caution that the electronic “green line” may move slower if container stacks grow.

Looking ahead: room for compromise?

Both sides profess readiness to negotiate, yet no meeting is scheduled. Mediators at the Ministry of Labour could still invoke Portugal’s Lei da Greve to order compulsory arbitration if essential operations remain impaired. For now, expats living in Portugal—and firms betting on the country as a logistics hub—would be wise to monitor union communiqués and port authority bulletins. The cranes may be tall, but the gap between labour and management remains wider.