China Ningbo Meishan Port will be unsealed this week on August 25 and will be fully restored soon

The latest news is that after the strict implementation of the epidemic prevention and control policy, the port will continue to operate the import of vessels already in port and those waiting for shipment on the 18th of this month, and the inbound and outbound container service will be resumed in an orderly manner after the unsealing on the 25th, and the whole service will be resumed on the 1st of September.

Ningbo Zhoushan Port Meishan International Container Port suspended all incoming and outgoing container services at 3:30 on the 11th of this month due to the epidemic. Many sellers' goods were affected. After the news was released industry insiders expressed some panic, worrying whether the same crisis of port congestion and cargo piling up would happen again one after another around the world as before.

The suspension of services at Meishan port this time has had a considerable impact on the ships that were scheduled to arrive and other ports. The average number of weekly arrivals to Ningbo port dropped by 70%. The number of containers also dropped from 200 to less than 60 this week.

Review of this event

On the morning of August 10, one case of staff who tested positive for COVID-19 virus was found at Ningbo Zhoushan Port port as a strapping worker at Ningbo Meidong Container port. 11, Meishan port issued a statement announcing that all incoming and outgoing container services were suspended from now on due to port system failure, with resumption to be announced.

While Zhoushan Port is the world's largest port in terms of cargo throughput and an important hub in East China, Meishan port's cargo throughput accounts for another 20% of Zhoushan Port.

The sudden outbreak of the epidemic brought a major impact on foreign trade shipments in East China, including Duffy, Hapag-Lloyd, COSCO Shipping and other shipping companies then announced that some routes jumped port Ningbo to Shanghai.

So at this time, there are also many traders and buyers worried that the sudden situation of the Meishan port will not push up the already sky-high freight rates again, making the fragile supply chain even more precarious.

The Russell Group, a UK-based insurance risk management consultancy, analyzed the port operations report and concluded that "the closure of the Meishan port at Ningbo Zhoushan port affects $172 billion worth of global trade." Russell warned clients of the vulnerability of global trade, saying that vulnerability means that any minor disruption to the trade network, whether it's a port closure or a blocked route, will have an impact on shippers, the global supply chain and even the end consumer.

"Now that some of the ports at Ningbo Zhoushan port are closed, our shipments to the U.S. East and Europe are affected, and we look forward to getting the outbreak under control and the ports back in operation soon." A trader said this in a media interview on Aug. 17.