Bulkers also bedevilled by berthing delays
While container ships gain a lot of headlines for their queuing to access to ports in China, bulk vessels bringing grain and coal – key basic commodities that China cannot produce enough of for its needs – are also suffering similar challenges.
Throughout much of Q2 2022, there have been scores of non-container ships waiting along the coast of China, including those wishing to access ports in the north of the country. For example, at regular periods in this quarter there have been more than 220 bulk vessels waiting to access Shanghai, while Ningbo-Zhoushan had more than 130 ships waiting. By comparison, on a collective basis, the northern ports of Rizhao, Dongjiakou and Qingdao saw a total of about 120, at worst.
It’s not just lockdowns causing this, other issues cited are lack of personnel to process paperwork and insufficient trucks available to move imported raw materials, like copper and iron ore, from the port to processing mills, thereby leaving the product stranded at the port of entry, according to reports from Bloomberg.
As a result, ships have been diverted to northern ports more on a more frequent basis, especially Qingdao and Tianjin, simply because trucking is more readily available.
Of course, port substitution is difficult for high volume bulks which are primarily reliant on rail for onward distribution. This is another manifestation of the combination of Covid and political factors impacting on Chinese ports.
Related Articles
OPERATIONS
OPERATIONS
OPERATIONS