宁波已关闭的梅东集装箱码头将于本周三开始分阶段重新开放，并于9月1日回复全面运营

Ningbo port authorities said container volumes at Ningbo-Zhoushan port averaged 77,000 TEU a day between Wednesday and Friday last week after the Ningbo Meidong Container Terminal was closed Wednesday. Photo credit: Shutterstock.com.

Forwarders expect Ningbo’s shuttered Meidong container terminal to start a phased reopening on Wednesday with a resumption of full operations on September 1 after extensive rounds of testing by Ningbo health authorities showed no new cases of COVID-19.

That came as Ocean Alliance carriers including Cosco Shipping Lines and Orient Overseas Container Line continued to omit calls at Ningbo or shift services to other terminals at the port that are functioning normally.

Forwarders said the disruption at Ningbo is significantly less than that?created at Yantian?when a coronavirus outbreak led to the partial closure of the Shenzhen facility for around a month with full operations only resuming on June 23. Yantian handled about half of Shenzhen’s total throughput of 26.6 million TEU last year.

Ningbo port authorities said container volumes at Ningbo-Zhoushan port averaged 77,000 TEU a day between Wednesday and Friday last week after the Ningbo Meidong Container Terminal was closed Wednesday when a port worker tested positive for COVID-19. That was equivalent to 90 percent of the daily average in July, Ningbo port said.

The Meidong facility — also known as the Meishan Island International Container Terminal (MSICT) — handled around 22 percent of Ningbo-Zhoushan’s total throughput of 28.7 million TEU last year, with Ocean Alliance carriers being the main user. Other carriers including Maersk, Mediterranean Shipping Co., Ocean Network Express (ONE), and regional operators such as SITC use Ningbo’s other terminals.

“I am expecting the terminal to restart operations from August 18 to clear the backlog of cargo,” a China-based senior executive at an international freight forwarder with strong Ningbo links told JOC.com Monday. “But no new cargo will be accepted again until a week later, from August 25, with normal operations resuming from September 1.”

He said no new COVID-19 cases have been reported after three rounds of testing involving about 50,000 people.

The executive said the timeline is similar to the way Yantian reopened in June and would be in accordance with China’s COVID-19 policies.

The forwarder’s views were echoed by other logistics executives who told JOC.com they expected Meishan to reopen this week. Ningbo Port Group has not commented on a possible restart of operations at Meishan.

Carriers maintain contingency plans

That came as carriers are continuing to implement continency plans to deal with the closure.

Commenting on the ongoing closure in a LinkedIn post Monday, Lars Jensen, CEO and partner of consultancy Vespucci Maritime and a JOC.com analyst, said: “We are now on day six of the closure and increasing congestion challenges should be expected in the other terminals in Ningbo and an impact on Shanghai should also be anticipated. The positive aspect — if it can be labeled that way — is that the other terminals in Ningbo remain operational and thus helps mitigate the impact.”

Those comments were echoed by ONE, which told customers Friday that other terminals in Ningbo-Zhoushan port are operating normally.

“ONE’s main terminals in Ningbo-Zhoushan port are Ningbo Beilun International Container Terminal and Ningbo Daxie International Terminal; therefore, there is no immediate impact on our operation caused by this scenario so far,” it said. “However, some vessels originally planned to call MSICT may move their calls to other terminals which in turn may impact upon our operations in the future.”

Maersk said in an update advisory Monday that all six vessels operating the Ocean Alliance’s Asia-Caribbean 6 service in August would omit Ningbo. Maersk has a vessel-sharing agreement on the service.

“2M vessels mainly call at Ningbo Beilun Container Terminal phase 4 with a waiting time of two days right now,” the carrier said. “The yard density for laden containers is 78 percent and 85 percent for empties.”

Vessels serving the Asia-West Africa trade call at Ningbo-Zhoushan’s Yongzhou terminal, where there is also a two-day wait and the yard is 79 percent full for laden containers and 82 percent for empties. A few vessels which call at MSICT have started to move to other terminals in Ningbo port, the Maersk advisory added.

OOCL told customers on Saturday these redeployments include two vessels operating its China Straits and Middle East services that will instead call at the Daxie terminal operated by China Merchants International Container Terminals. Two ships operating Asia-Europe and Middle East services would skip Ningbo, OOCL said.

CMA CGM said in an updated customer advisory on Friday that 14 vessels operating a raft of services, including Asia-Europe and trans-Pacific trades would omit Ningbo up to August 20. “CMA CGM and its partners are working with Ningbo Port Group to reroute some vessel calls from MSICT to other Ningbo terminals,” the advisory added, without giving details.

Gate-in for export containers at these other terminals is limited to two days before a vessel’s estimated time of arrival, although Maersk said entry to the container yard can be up to three or four days depending on the situation.

Meanwhile, Evergreen is continuing to plan Ningbo calls for extraloaders it is deploying on ad-hoc calls on Asia-Europe, Mediterranean, and trans-Pacific services in August and September.

These include the 2,872-TEU Ever Being on a China-South America routing that Evergreen calls the OEPA service, which is due to call at Ningbo on August 26. The 2,910-TEU Ever Breed operating the same ad-hoc service was due to call at Ningbo last Saturday, but is sailing direct to Kaohisung from Shanghai. The 5,652-TEU Ital Usodimare, operating the OGEU Asia-Europe ad-hoc service, is also due to call at Ningbo on September 3.

Evergreen is operating a total of five ad-hoc extra-loader routes. “Evergreen Line is taking delivery of newbuildings and using the vessels to serve shippers’ increasing demand and cope with the challenge of port congestion,” Evergreen told JOC.com. “The ships are added to our regular service routes, providing extra capacity to all major ports, including Taiwan.”