- In preparation for Typhoon Chantu, China reduces production loads at multiple major facilities on its southeast coast, including at Shanghai Port — the world’s largest container hub
- Typhoon Chanthu has passed through the Philippines and Taiwan and forced hundreds of evacuations with no deaths or major damages thus far
- The cost of shipping a 40-foot container from China to the US jumps 500 per cent in the past year
- On the back of surge in freight prices, OMX Copenhagen-listed Maersk reaches an all-time high
In preparation for Typhoon Chantu, China has reduced production loads at multiple major facilities on its southeast coast, including at Shanghai Port — the world’s largest container hub.
All flights leaving Shanghai’s two airports were cancelled on Sunday, with rail services in some cities also suspended.
Ningbo Meidong Container Terminal Co, China’s second-biggest port also reduced production over the weekend, just three weeks after returning to full capacity on August 25.
Both the Shanghai and Ningbo Meidong ports had previous periods of suspension or altogether halts on service in the past two months, following Typhoon In-Fa in late July and COVID-19 lockdowns in August.
Typhoon Chanthu has passed through the Philippines and Taiwan and forced hundreds of people to evacuate with no reported deaths or major damages thus far.
Shipping costs spike
Since the beginning of the pandemic, global lockdowns have had an undeniable impact on the cost of shipping from Asia. Additionally, natural disasters have kept air, sea and land freight stationary.
Bloomberg reports an overall spike in shipping costs from China to the US. The instability of ports in China has been blamed for a bottleneck of stock, causing international delays that are expected to last past Christmas this year.
Freightos, a freight tracking firm, said a shipment of a 40-foot box has climbed over 500 per cent, sitting at more than US$ 20,000 (A$28,308), the highest since 2008.
Amid the high freight prices, one of the world’s largest shippings companies, Maersk, opened on the OMX Copenhagen at US$19,3600 (A$26,362) after it peaked last week Thursday at US$19,520 (A$26,580).
“The strong quarterly performance is mainly driven by the continuation of the exceptional market situation with a strong rebound in demand causing bottlenecks in the supply chains and equipment shortage,” a spokesperson from Maersk said.