Yantian port delays pose golden quarter risk
Recent reports suggest that the supply chain ripple effect resulting from last month’s partial shutdown of the world’s fourth-largest container port, Yantian International Container Terminal (Yantian port), located in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, may take several months to ease.
Yantian port stopped accepting heavy export containers for a period in late May, following an outbreak of covid-19 cases in the locality, although by mid-June it said it had recovered to approximately 70% of its normal operating capacity.
Vice president of ocean strategy and carrier development for Flexport (a software maker geared towards supply chain management), Nerijus Poskus, told Bloomberg that the cargo congestion at Yantian may take between six and eight weeks to clear.
This makes it more likely that the disruptions will impact the peak late-summer period of demand from US- and Europe-based retailers and importers, in particular, who typically order large quantities of goods around this time, in order to restock their warehouses ahead of retail’s ‘golden quarter’ (the industry term for the final three months of the calendar year).
Copenhagen-based Maersk, the world’s leading container carrier, recently stated that most of its ships would be diverted elsewhere in June, but that this rerouting would likely only add to congestion and delays at nearby ports.
The average waiting time at Yantian is reportedly 16 days at present.
