Container shipping analyst Lars Jensen, CEO of the Danish shipping consultancy company Vespucci Maritime, claims that the ongoing container disruption in the Chinese Port of Yantian, caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, has already blocked a larger number of containers than the number of boxes that were unable to move due to the recent Suez Canal blockage by Ever Given.
During the 14 days of Yantian port congestion, the port has been unable to handle approximately 357,000TEU, while Suez Canal blockage was impacting a daily flow of 55,000TEU for six days; this translates to a total of 330,000TEU. Furthermore, the impact of the Port of Yantian situation is still ongoing, while there are also significant effects on Nansha and Shekou ports.
In the meantime, Hapag-Lloyd has announced the following additional omissions at the Port of Yantian on its Transpacific services, aiming to "minimize vessel idle time and port congestion." The German shipping company noted that the situation remains fluid and the aforementioned port omissions are subject to change.
Jensen states that once the ports return to normal operations "we should expect a surge of cargo – at least to the degree there are even vessels available to handle this."
Source: container-news.com
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