On the morning of August 11, a person who tested positive for the new coronavirus nucleic acid was found at the Ningbo Zhoushan Port Terminal. He was a strapper at the Ningbo Meidong Container Terminal. At present, all close contacts and sub-close contacts identified in the investigation have been controlled. Relevant places have suspended operations and are conducting environmental disinfection.
Meidong Company immediately issued a notice: At 3 a.m. on August 11, the customs checkpoint in Meishan Bonded Port Area will be temporarily closed. Entry of external collection cards is prohibited, exit checkpoints are closed, and all external collection cards are stranded in the port. People are prohibited from going out. Meishan Terminal also issued a notice about the suspension of suitcase service at around 6 a.m. on August 11.
Zhoushan Port is the world’s largest port in cargo throughput. The current suspension of suitcase services has an impact on the already chaotic shipping market. One can imagine the impact.
Judah Levine, director of research at shipping tracking company Freightos, said that if China closes some ports, freight rates will continue to rise, which means the market will need to increase its shipping capacity by 25% to handle the same amount of cargo. The imbalance between supply and demand caused by ongoing congestion and delays has sent freight rates out of control.
Under the current severe circumstances, my country has responded very quickly to the prevention and control of imported epidemics. The Discipline Inspection and Supervision Team of the General Administration of Customs has set up an inspection team to go to Tianjin, Shijiazhuang, Harbin, Fuzhou, Qingdao, Jinan and other six cities. A customs directly under the Customs has carried out a week-long special inspection, focusing on port epidemic prevention and control, import and export cargo monitoring and testing and preventive disinfection, new coronavirus vaccine exit guarantee, laboratory testing, etc. In addition, a number of special supervision and inspections have been carried out such as supervision of exported anti-epidemic materials and crackdown on illegal export of COVID-19 vaccines.
However, many major ports around the world have been captured by the Delta variant virus and have almost lost their ability to operate!
1. The risk of abandoned goods in Chittagong Port, Bangladesh is soaring
Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus pneumonia in Chittagong Port in March last year, 48 workers and their family members have died. Due to COVID-19, 4 people died on August 4 alone. So far, around 12,266 coronavirus samples have been collected at Chittagong Port Hospital, of which 1,788 have tested positive.
Chittagong Port is the largest port in Bangladesh, located on the northeastern coast of the Bay of Bengal. It is responsible for more than 70% of Bangladesh’s import and export cargo transportation. Currently, more than 4,000 containers arrive at the port every day, and more than 60% of the goods come from China. The busiest season for Chittagong Port is from April to October every year. The epidemic has plunged this large port, known as “the most blocked port in the world,” into an endless loop.
Currently, Chittagong Port has reached its worst situation in history – more than 40,000 TEUs of imported goods have been stacked at the terminal for nearly 2 weeks, and more than 50,000 TEUs of goods are outside the terminal. There are more than 20 ships in the area that have been waiting to enter the port for more than a week. The Bangladesh Revenue Authority has allowed all types of containers to be moved outside the terminal, but the move has not provided any relief.
Bangladesh importers said that due to the local implementation of strict epidemic prevention measures on July 23 and the closure of factories, they were unable to process the goods arriving at the port.
The Chittagong Port Authority has threatened to punish importers who do not take delivery of their goods within four days of unloading at the port terminal. In Chittagong, importers do not have to pay rent for storage containers during the first four days of unloading. Rent is charged from the fifth day. According to the Chittagong Port Working Regulations, when the number of containers at the yard increases, the authorities can levy punitive rent on the overstayed containers.
Under the current circumstances, Chinese exporters must beware of Bangladeshi importers abandoning goods whose cabinets are stuck in Chittagong!
2. Vietnam’s two major ports have suspended the reception of some containers
Currently, one-third of Vietnam is under epidemic lockdown, mainly in southern Vietnam. .
It is also due to the shutdown of factories and warehouses caused by the blockade, and no one to handle imported goods, causing serious port congestion in southern Vietnam. The largest port in Ho Chi Minh City, Cat Lai, has a backlog of more than 100,000 TEU, the station density has reached 85%.
Vietnam’s two major ports, Cai Lai Port Terminal and Xingang Gaimei International Port Terminal (TCIT), have notified that they will suspend the reception of some containers starting from August 5, 2021.
In addition, the chaotic port situation is also spreading northward. The move follows the Vietnamese government’s decision to block the port of Quy Nhon in the country’s central region, where a larger outbreak has been detected. The outer anchorage in Haiphong, in the north of the country, is also particularly busy at the moment. The traffic jam at the Friendship Pass on the China-Vietnam border is also quite serious.
Due to the severe epidemic in Southeast Asia, the current freight rates from this region to North America have soared by 15%-25%. The freight rates to the East United States have reached US$20,000-25,000, and the freight rates to the West US have also reached US$20,000-25,000. US$16,000-20,000.
3. West American ports are waiting to unload cargo
According to the latest data from the Signal platform of the Port of Los Angeles, the number of container ships currently waiting at the anchorage in Southern California has reached There are 19 ships, and 11 ships are waiting outside the port, with an average waiting time of 5.8 days.
Above, are there any container ships carrying your cargo?
According to Drewry’s latest report, Among the 496 voyages on major routes such as trans-Pacific, trans-Atlantic, Asia to Northern Europe and the Mediterranean, 24 voyages have been canceled between weeks 31 and 34, with a cancellation rate of 5%. According to the latest statistics from Seaexplorer, the global There are 396 container ships moored in the port.
Global port congestion on the Seaexplorer website on August 9 (red dots represent ship groups, orange represents ports with congestion or operational disruption)
Flexport, an American freight forwarding company, also stated that the transportation time from Shanghai to Chicago via the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has increased from 35 days to 73 days. This means that a container starts from It takes about 146 days to depart from the port and return to the port of origin, which is equivalent to a 50% reduction in the available shipping capacity on the market.
The time it takes for a container to be loaded and unloaded from the ship to the terminal train, In Seattle it was 18 days, in Oakland it was two weeks, and at the Port of Savannah it was more than a week. Ocean shipping delays held up the equivalent of 25% of all transpacific capacity, while demand surged another 25% over the same period.
Kazayan, founder of Freight Right Global Logistics, said, “In May, we were already shipping Christmas products. As long as there is space, there will be people trying to ship their products to the United States. They won’t wait until September. ”
The global supply chain is on fire and extremely fragile.</p
