Chineese ports shut down shipping
May 31
https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/05/31/covid-outbreak-partly-closes-one-of-chinas-busiest-ports/
An outbreak of Covid-19 has partly closed one of the world’s busiest ports, a shutdown that may add to the already record cost of shipping goods out of China.
Yantian Port in the export and industrial hub of Shenzhen in southern China stopped accepting containers for export until May 30, according to a notice posted Friday on Wechat. The container yard of the port has been partly shut since last week after an outbreak of Covid-19 among port staff and in the broader community, state media reported.
The disruptions will continue into the coming week, with shipping firm AP Moller-Maersk A/S reporting delays in its schedules due to the closure. Any delays will likely put further pressure on the already sky-high costs of shipping goods from China, which have soared on record export demand, a shortage of containers, and other factors.
The local government said in a notice Friday it will conduct mass testing of the entire population of the Yantian district.
June 14
https://afloat.ie/port-news/port-and-shipping-news/item/50723-impact-of-china-port-city-yangtian-of-disruption-exceeds-the-suez-incident
Disruption caused by the partial closure of the key south China Port of Yantian and its impact is set to exceed that of the Suez Canal blockage in late March and April, according to senior container shipping sources, with the ripple effects already being felt across supply chains.
According to LloydsLoadingList, container shipping industry commentator Lars Jensen, CEO of shipping consultancy Vespucci Maritime, observed that it “clearly currently appears that supply chain problems are worsening and not improving”. He highlighted that “the impact of the South China port issues continues to escalate”, and that the proportion of vessels affected “exceed the Suez incident”.
Taking a “quick look at four carriers, across each of the major alliances”, he yesterday highlighted that Maersk now advises that 64 of its vessels or its partner vessels in the 2M alliance have omitted Yantian and Shekou, with six switching to call in Nansha or Hong Kong, noting that “this is up from 40 vessels listed just two days ago”.
He notes that ONE now advises that 52 of THE Alliance’s vessels are being impacted, with 41 omissions and 11 changes typically from Yantian to Nansha – up from 27 vessels, of which 20 were omissions and seven were port changes, in their last advisory 5 days ago.
https://www.lloydsloadinglist.com/freight-directory/news/Impact-of-Yantian-disruption-%E2%80%98exceeds-the-Suez-incident%E2%80%99/79276.htm#.YMeyK_KSmM9
Noting that report that 300 vessels were now waiting due to disruptions at various ports, Jensen said that “if we consider pure cellular containerships, the world fleet has some 5,400 vessels in total. This means some 5.5% of all vessels just sit there waiting. In terms of capacity this is highly likely to be severely skewed towards larger vessels waiting in line and therefore even more in capacity terms.”
But he warns that the situation could get even worse, if the current incidents of Covid-19 at ports in south China become replicated at other Chinese container hubs.
In a note to cargo owners about the need to consider their contingency plan, he observes: “If you are reliant on container shipping services you are of course – unfortunately – fully aware of the almost chaotic state of the market presently where the Covid outbreak in South China is wreaking havoc on the planned sailings – on top of a market already in partial disarray.
It is a realistic risk that cases might appear in other places of China – such as, for example, Shanghai, Ningbo, Tianjin and other major port areas. Should that happen the disruption to shipping schedules would take on even larger proportions.