South China ports disrupted by the epidemic triggered 135 port jumps and 600,000 teu containers were affected

It is reported that during the period from May 23 to June 26, due to the low productivity and congestion caused by Covid-19 restrictions on South China ports, more than 130 departure ports and more than 60 new calls have been found.

In response to the situation of South China ports, shipping companies adjusted their route calls, jumping to Yantian on multiple routes and adding to Nansha or Shekou at the same time. Some routes even jumping to South China ports and adding to other Asian ports.

According to the updated shipping schedule data as of June 11, the easy shipping schedule counts the epidemic on the route from Asia to North America and Europe within 5 weeks from the 22nd week to the 26th week (2021/5/23~2021/6/26) The affected arrangements for port jumps and reliances have resulted in a total of 135 port hops and 63 reliances.

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As expected, Yantian Port was the most severely affected port in the area, having been jumped 128 times. According to Easy Sailing Schedule, the number of port jumps was the highest in week 24 (June 6-12), reaching 45 times, but it gradually decreased in the next two weeks.

At the same time, Nansha and Shekou were the “backup” ports of Yantian. Nansha was relied on 32 times and Shekou was relied on 12 times. Hong Kong jumped 2 times and relied on 2 times, and there was almost no impact.

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Calculated by shipping alliances, ocean alliances including CMA CGM/APL, COSCO Shipping/OOCL and Evergreen Line have the biggest changes, with 55 port hopping and 24 calls; followed by other non-alliance routes, with 25 port hopping and 24 calls. ；

Both the THE Alliance and the 2M Alliance have changed more than 30 times. Among them, THE jumped 30 times and 9 times, and 2M jumped 25 times and 6 times.

In addition, it is estimated that due to the impact of the epidemic, more than 600,000 teu containers have been affected in South China ports. In the coming weeks, as the peak season in the United States is approaching, ports around the world will face severe container shortages.

Container shipping analyst Lars Jensen said in an interview: “At present, a reasonable estimate is that at least 600,000 teu are affected. This also shows that there is a backlog of about 300,000 teu waiting to be shipped out of the area, and the rest is A mix of imported goods and imported empty containers."

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If you put these 600,000 TEUs in the general context, the number of containers affected by the partial shutdown of Yantian will be twice that of the 6-day suspension of the Suez Canal Ever Given accident that has attracted much attention in March this year.

Fortunately, there are signs that the port’s productivity is increasing. The overall operation of Yantian Port has recovered to nearly 70%, and the yard density has dropped significantly to 70%. Although it will take several weeks to resolve the backlog of boxes, it is initially expected that production will resume in full. The goal can be basically achieved in the last week of June.

The congestion at Yantian Port has a negative impact on the on-time schedule and container availability.

According to an announcement issued by Maersk on Tuesday, Yantian International Container Terminal (YICT) continues to face more than two weeks of ship berthing delays, resulting in subsequent ship berthing delays. At present, many flights have suspended calls to Yantian Port, and have changed calls to Shekou, Nansha and Hong Kong. The transfer of flight calls has also caused these ports to face certain port congestion pressure, with longer waiting times for ships and limited entry time.

However, the impact of congestion in Yantian Port is more extensive, and it has currently affected most of the world's routes. The West Port of Yantian Port was closed on May 21 for disinfection and quarantine measures, and has resumed operations on June 10 and opened more berths. This will ease the congestion of inland transportation, but its impact on shipping schedules and container availability is expected to last for several weeks. At present, the operating capacity of the East Port of Yantian Port has returned to about 50% of the normal level.

Customers are advised to consider transferring export containers to nearby ports in the next few weeks, and switch to 20-foot containers to overcome the shortage of 40-foot containers.