Update (June 17): While productivity in Yantian Port steadily recovers, the current average waiting time at Shekou, Nansha, and Hong Kong is expected to rise above 2-4 days as carriers omit Yantian.
Yantian yard density has reduced to 69% but the the yard density of Shekou and Nansha port remains high.
In a customer advisory notice, Maersk stated that it expects continued vessel omissions and vessel delays at Yantian port upwards of four days in the coming week.
Meanwhile, operation in the eastern area of the terminal where mother vessels mainly berth is gradually recovering to about 54% of its normal level.
After a six-day stop on export containers due to a COVID-19 outbreak, the Yantian port authorities have announced that productivity is gradually set to increase as more workers return and berths reopen.
Though this is expected to have a positive impact on gate activity, schedule reliability will continue to suffer with a current average waiting time of 16 days and counting.
In an operations update, Maersk noted that this has had an affect on 19 of its mainline services and has released a plan for the remainder of the month.
Several of these services will completely omit Yantian Port throughout June such as the AE10 WB, AE7 WB, TP17 HH, SAFARI SB, AC2 SB and X4A WB.
The AE6 EB, AE6 WB, AE11 WB, TP9 NB and TP1 NB will also omit throughout June with the exception of one or two vessels.
Six more Maersk services will maintain calling at Yantian throughout the month with the exception of one or bi-weekly omissions.
Hapag-Lloyd has diverted some import containers destined for Yantian to alternative ports such as Nansha and Hongkong.
It has offered its customers potential options for Yantian import shipments: to accept delivery at current port of discharge if situation allows, diver containers to other Pearl River Delta ports or wait for on-carriage to Yantian at the transhipment port.
The current average waiting time in the ports of Shekou, Nansha and Hong Kong is between two to four days but as more carriers omit Yantian, this number is expected to rise.
Yantian’s yard density has reduced to 70% while the yard density of Shekou and Nansha port remains high.
CMA CGM noted that most of Yantian’s reefer plugs are already being occupied due to the congestion.
As such the carrier has encouraged its customers to change the port of discharge/destination otherwise it may have to divert reefer cargo to alternative ports.
To cover the additional costs, CMA CGM has applied a port congestion surcharge on reefer cargo destined for Yantian for US$1,250 per reefer container.
