08/17/2021

Sources in China say that the Port of Ningbo plans to at least partially reopen the Meishan terminal by the middle of next week, August 24, with the full reopening planned for September 1.

It is expected that it will take up to 2 weeks to clear the backlog created by the terminal closure and that operations should return to normal pace by mid-September.

In an operational update given today the port authority claims that despite Meishan’s closure production remained at 90% capacity in recent days with many ships switching to different terminals. Even with this impressive achievement the port, which is the world’s largest in overall tonnage terms, currently experiences unprecedented congestion with many liners deciding to skip calls there in the wake of the Covid case.

We will continue to monitor this situation and advise updates as soon as they become available.

In the meantime please contact your V. Alexander Import Account Team to discuss specific shipments that might be impacted by this situation.

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08/16/2021

Meishan Terminal at the Port of Ningbo remain closed for the 6th consecutive day, causing further disruption in supply chains worldwide.

Although the port tries to divert vessels to other terminals and carriers are omitting port calls at Ningbo, 50 container vessels are currently anchored outside the port waiting for berth space.

The port has not published any updates on the situation and a potential timetable for reopening of the terminal so far, with some unofficial sources talking about a potential reopening on September 6.

Carriers are also blanking more sailings due to the ongoing congestion in various ports around the world, including Los Angeles/Long Beach were over 30 container vessels were at anchor as of this morning.

We will continue to monitor this situation and advise updates as soon as they become available.

In the meantime please contact your V. Alexander Import Account Team to discuss specific shipments that might be impacted by this situation.

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08/12/2021

Container lines are omitting and rescheduling port calls at Ningbo’s Meidong terminal that was closed Wednesday following a COVID-19 outbreak.

CMA CGM advised that one call would omit the Ningbo Meidong Container Terminal that is also known as the Meishan Island terminal. The schedules for two other sailings due at the terminal in the next few days will also be changed.

Cosco Shipping advised that two vessels operating on trans-Pacific services, Cosco Fortune and Cosco Africa, will call Ningbo’s Daxie terminal instead of Meidong.
CMA CGM, Cosco, and the other members of the Ocean Alliance — OOCL and Evergreen Line — are the main users of the Meishan facility.

Concerns are growing that as congestion currently building at Ningbo, China’s second-largest container port, will spread to other ports in the same way that Yantian’s International Container Terminals recent partial shut down in late May created congestion in neighboring port terminals in southern China.

The 11,356 TEU CMA CGM Centaurus that operates on CMA’s Columbus Pacific North-West service and was due to call Ningbo on Aug. 14 will now sail directly to Shanghai from Xiamen. Two other CMA vessels — the 17,722 TEU CMA CGM Kerguelen, operating on the FAL3 string, and the 8,533 TEU CMA CGM Melisande, serving the PEX3 loop — will now call at Shanghai first before heading to Ningbo.
The carrier also advised that the CMA CGM Samson (operating on the PEX3 service) and CMA CGM Rivilo (operating on the FAL1 service) are currently docked at Meidong. It is currently unclear when these vessels can proceed from Ningbo.

The Ningbo Port Authority is limiting gate-in of export containers at all of Ningbo’s other terminals, including the Beilun and Daxie facilities, to two days before vessel estimated time of arrival, CMA CGM said.

The Meidong terminal handles about 22 percent of Ningbo’s total container volumes, which hit 28.7 million TEU last year, making the Ningbo-Zhoushan complex the world’s third-busiest container port.

If the COVID-19 outbreak is limited to the Meidong terminal the impact could be less severe than that of the outbreak at Yantian at the end of May. Yantian handled approximately 25 percent of China’s containerized exports to the US in 2020.

We will monitor this situation and advise updates as soon as they become available.

As always please contact your V. Alexander Import Account Team to discuss specific shipments that might be impacted by this situation.

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08/10/2021

The Port of Ningbo has suspended operations at a terminal after detecting a case of COVID-19. The initial reason given for the terminal shutdown was a problem with its operating system.

As of this morning vessels have been turned away from the terminal in the wake of a nucleic test.

The port is already experiencing congestion issues due to the large amount of vessels of all kind that are backing up outside the port, including a large amount of container vessels sitting at anchorage waiting for berth space.

In late May the port of Yantian partially shut down due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, resulting in an almost 70% drop in operational output in the month of June.

As of right now it is unclear what impact this issue will cause, in the worst case it could lead to a situation in the port of Ningbo that has an even bigger impact than Yantian, with significant delays for US-bound export cargo as well as for the movement of empty containers into the region.

We will monitor this situation and advise updates as soon as they become available.

As always please contact your V. Alexander Import Account Team to discuss specific shipments that might be impacted by this situation.