MOSCOW (MRC) -- A terminal at China's second-busiest container port, Ningbo Zhoushan, suspended operations Aug. 11 after a port worker tested positive for COVID-19, fueling worries that export cargoes will be further delayed heading into the August-November peak season for shipments to the US and Europe, reported S&P Global.
Meidong Container Terminal halted inbound and unloading services from 3:30 a.m. local time Aug. 11. A similar outbreak at Shenzhen's Yantian port in May curtailed operations for a month, contributing to severe congestion at nearly all major North American ports in early August as Yantian ramped up operations to clear backlogs of cargo.
"With this sudden suspension, we expect a delay in planned sailings that might affect your cargo planning," German shipping firm Hapag-Lloyd said in an advisory Aug. 11. "Please know that we are working on alternatives and hope for your understanding on a matter that is beyond our control."
Meidong terminal is part of the Meishan bonded area used regularly by Ocean Alliance members Cosco, Evergreen and CMA CGM.
A US-based freight forwarder noted that any halt of Ningbo port operations is likely spill over to the world's busiest container port complex at Shanghai, which sits just opposite of Ningbo in the Hangzhou Bay in East China and is the likely alternative for some export cargoes that were planned to depart from Ningbo, as well as many arriving ships.
"Shippers are already getting very antsy about Black Friday coming up," a US-based freight forwarder said, referring to the typical late-November start of the year-end holiday shopping season. "We are all dreading any further canceled sailings."
As MRC informed earlier, China's crude oil imports rebounded in July from a six-month low as state-backed refiners ramped up output after returning from maintenance, though independent refineries slowed restocking amid probes by Beijing into trading and taxes.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,176,860 tonnes in the first half of 2021, up by 5% year on year. Shipments of exclusively low density polyethylene (LDPE) decreased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 727,160 tonnes in the first six months of 2021, up by 31% year on year. Supply of homopolymer PP and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased. Supply of statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) subsided.
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