Yantian Port will be delayed for 14 days, peak season shipments to Europe and the United States may be delayed!

With the emergence of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Shenzhen and Guangzhou , the local epidemic in Guangdong has seriously affected foreign trade shipments in South China .

Yantian Port will be delayed for 14 days

Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the business volume of Yantian Port has dropped by 60-70%. On June 3 alone , Yantian Port, which handles more than one-third of Guangdong Province's foreign trade imports and exports, had about 40 container ships waiting for berths and a backlog of about 23,000 export containers.

Maersk, MSC, ONE, Hapag-Lloyd and other shipping companies have also issued port-skipping notices and cancelled calls at Yantian International Container Terminal. However, the current situation at Yantian Port has not only not improved, but has further deteriorated !

Since all the existing confirmed cases in Shenzhen are in the transmission chain of international cargo ship operations at Yantian Port, the disinfection and quarantine efforts at Yantian Port remain very strong.

Maersk warned: “ Due to tightening restrictions on COVID-19, sailings from Yantian port may be delayed by more than 14 days , and routes in southern China are being reduced and diverted.”

Due to the congestion and port skipping at Yantian Port, a large amount of South China cargo that usually ships out to sea from Yantian has been diverted to Shekou Port and Nansha Port.

Nansha Port and Shekou Port fell one after another

Faced with the huge shipping pressure from Yantian Port, one of the busiest ports in the world and one of the world's largest single container terminals , Nansha Port and Shetian Port were unable to fully accommodate the transfer of their capacity for a while, resulting in a major congestion collapse.

Due to the influx of a large number of containers , Nansha Port was instantly blocked and turned into a parking lot. It is understood that trailers in Nansha need to queue up at least 5 days in advance .

To make matters worse, Nansha District was immediately closed due to the confirmed cases! Although the traffic control was lifted after only a day and a half of closure, congestion and delays at Nansha Port continued due to the strengthened epidemic prevention management of drivers entering the port area.

Facing the pressure from port congestion and the epidemic, Shekou Port issued an announcement that as of 23:59 on June 13, the time for receiving export heavy containers will be adjusted, and only export heavy containers within 3 days of the estimated arrival date (ETA) of the ship will be accepted. On the other hand, it also requires that from 00:00 on June 9, nucleic acid test reports within 3 days must be provided to enter the terminal, otherwise they will not be allowed to enter the port.

Freight rates have seen a series of astonishing increases

A week ago, Hapag-Lloyd announced that it would increase freight rates from Asia to North America by USD2400/20' and USD3000/40' .

After that, the world's second largest shipping company, MSC, set a record for the highest single price increase in shipping history, with a maximum price increase of USD3,798! COSCO Shipping also followed suit and announced a notice of an increase of USD800 per container in the Asia -Europe Peak Season Surcharge (PSS).

The serious delays caused by the congestion in South China have directly resulted in freight rates rising by about US$2,000 to US$12,000 in the past ten days .

According to the current global shipping situation, the shipping situation in the second half of the year is still not optimistic. The surging shipping market is unlikely to subside in the short term, and there is even a high probability that it will reach a new high.

The peak sales season from September to December in the second half of the year in Europe and the United States is about to arrive, but the congestion continues. If the sea shipping situation cannot be effectively alleviated in the next period of time, it may endanger sellers' shipments during the peak season in Europe and the United States.

Port congestion

Peak Season

Freight