One of the world’s busiest container ports, Yantian International Container Terminals, will most likely reopen Thursday morning after a two-week shutdown of the western part of the port due to a severe Covid-19 outbreak, confirms Mads Drejer, COO of Scan Global Logistics, and Lars Jensen, shipping analyst and CEO of Vespucci Maritime, independently of one another to WPO.
Yantian International Container Terminals has made no announcements regarding the outbreak in the port, with authorities shutting down the western terminal, imposing quarantine measures and disinfecting the affected areas.
Container market risks chaos into 2022 following Covid-19 outbreak in China
The shutdown of the western terminal in Yantian for the past two weeks has caused major disruptions in container traffic, and carriers have notified customers of considerable delays while rerouting a growing fleet of container vessels to other ports.
Will take weeks to catch up
According to Jensen, the reopening spells good news for the already strained global supply chains.
“How long it will take for operations to return to normal is a very difficult question to answer, but we’re talking several weeks, at the very least,” says Jensen to WPO.
Regarding the Yantian port, logistics company DSV Panalpina currently estimates it will take between two to three weeks to even have a container leave the port again.
The redirection of ships and cargo to other ports also bring about logistical challenges.
How long it will take for operations to return to normal is a very difficult question to answer, but we’re talking several weeks, at the very least
Lars Jensen, analyst and CEO, Vespucci Maritime
At logistics company Scan Global Logistics, COO of Air, Ocean & Rail Mads Drejer says that the company has made efforts to ship their customers’ cargo to other container ports in South China such as Nansha and Shekov, which form part of the Pearl River Delta, or to Hong Kong.
“Basically, we’re experiencing the same critical pressure on the spot as other operators, and for that reason, all other alternatives are currently in play. Transportation via train from China is the obvious plan B for many of our customers, and we’re currently having record-level demand for this product, including dedicated block trains, where entire departures with up to 50 containers are reserved for a single customer,” writes Drejer in an e-mail to WPO.
He also highlights cargo on TIR trucks from China to Europe as another option, but this comes with limited capacity, as a result of which train options are currently in higher demand. Furthermore, it takes 16-18 days to transport cargo by train. In comparison, transporting cargo by container vessels takes 30-35 days.
“Finally, there’s also a knock-on effect on air cargo on the most critical orders. We’re currently able to find the necessary solutions to deliver the goods to our customers’ shelves in time, but naturally with extra costs relative to seafreight,” the COO of Scan Global adds.
Kuehne+Nagel: 300 container vessels waiting to enter ports
The global supply chains are under such enormous pressure that more than 300 container vessels are presently waiting in lines by ports all over the world, writes EVP of Sea Logistics with logistics company Kuehne+Nagel Otto Schacht on his Linkedin profile Wednesday.
He highlights bottlenecks on the US West Coast, but also the situation in South China with its partial shutdown of the port in Yantian.
“Just finished a call with a major global customer of ours, asking an overview of all container vessels waiting in front of all ports incl. average waiting times. Over 300 container vessels this moment waiting,” writes Schacht in the beginning of his post and continues:
“Suez and /Nansha is felt all over the world. My bicycle dealer in Hamburg knew about Ever Given, he will soon know, that a port of Yantian exists.”
Another of the world’s largest logistics companies, DSV Panalpina, compared the situation in China to Ever Given’s grounding in the Suez Canal, which disrupted global trade back in March and caused long delays.
English Edit: Christoffer Østergaard
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