Typhoon Dolphin has left multi-day vessel queues at Shanghai and Ningbo-Zhoushan after temporary port shutdowns disrupted vessel schedules, according to SEKO Logistics.
Berth waiting times were averaging four to seven days at major Shanghai terminals and three to five days at Ningbo-Zhoushan on 12 August, while Shanghai container yards were running at 75% to 85% utilisation.
Kuehne+Nagel’s seaexplorer showed seven-day average waiting times of 3.95 days in Shanghai and 2.26 days in Ningbo. Arrival delays in Shanghai averaged 5.63 days and departure delays 5.37 days.
More than 2.4m TEU of containership capacity was caught in the disruption. By 12 August, 117 vessels had returned to anchorage areas off Shanghai and 60 off Ningbo, with more than 200 ships affected across the wider East China region. Seven containerships of more than 20,000 TEU were waiting to berth at Ningbo, including the 24,188-TEU OOCL Felixstowe and 24,116-TEU MSC Raya.
Ningbo terminals began suspending container operations on 7 August, followed by key Shanghai facilities on 8 August. At Yangshan, COSCO Shipping Peru left its berth at 2200 on 7 August as vessels were cleared from the port. Empty-container gate operations stopped from 0600 on 8 August and laden-container handling from 0800. Forty-two international trading vessels changed arrival or departure plans. More than 800 commercial vessels were sheltering in the Ningbo area on 9 August.
Operations started returning after the storm passed, with Cheng Da entering Ningbo-Zhoushan at about 2000 on 10 August. A first group of 15 containerships began returning after the typhoon emergency response ended at 0800 on 11 August. Yangshan terminals reopened on the morning of 11 August, with the first seven international vessels entering at about 1030.
Dolphin made landfall near Yuhuan in Zhejiang at 1730 on 9 August with maximum winds near its centre of 42 metres per second, followed by a second landfall at Yueqing about 70 minutes later.