Typhoon Bavi wreaked havoc on North Asian ports over the weekend, with an estimated 2 million TEU of container ships delayed in major ports such as Shanghai and Ningbo.
Container shipping consultancy Linerlytica said that as of 12 July, North Asia accounted for 54% of congestion in container ports. Linerlytica estimates that shipping lines will need two weeks to clear the backlog, which is mostly concentrated on Shanghai and Ningbo.
On 10 July, China’s National Meteorological Centre issued an orange alert, indicating the second most serious typhoon warning. Typhoon Bavi made landfall early morning on 12 July, with winds of up to 40 metres per second.
On 9 July, Shanghai, the world’s busiest container port, began evacuating its berths, with ships required to clear the deepwater Yangshan terminal by 2000 hrs on 10 July. Ships in Shanghai’s Waigaoqiao terminal began clearing out the same day. Ningbo, the third busiest container port, suspended all container collection and delivery operations from noon (local time) on 10 July, with resumption subject to further notice. Ports along the Yangtze River, such as Taiwan, Nantong, Changsha and Nanjing that act as feeder channels to Shanghai and Ningbo also closed as a preventive measure.
Over in Taiwan, the island’s key container port, Kaohsiung, ordered all ships carrying hazardous goods to leave Intercontinental Terminal Phase 2 and berths 104-105 by 1000 hrs on 10 July. Other ships had to clear the port by 2200 hrs the same day. Forwarding group Seko Logistics said that Shanghai resumed port operations on 13 July but cautioned: “Port gates reopening doesn’t mean that vessel schedules have immediately normalised. Pilotage, berth sequencing and vessel movements may require additional recovery time, while ships that slowed, diverted or waited outside the affected area are repositioned.” (PL)
