Shipping giant Maersk says the backlog of vessels waiting to reach berths at the Port of Yantian has greatly improved in the past 10 days. They are rerouting more container ships back to the Port of Yantian.
The latest round of congestion at the Chinese port developed in May.
Ahmed Bashir, Global Head of Execution Centre at Maersk explains, “There’s no doubt that the situation in the Port of Yantian has been a challenge for us as an industry. Following the increase in COVID cases, towards the end of May, many staff members working in the port complex were sent out to quarantine, causing a significant slowdown in operations and a subsequent increase in congestion and waiting time.”
Since the late spring, Maersk diverted traffic to other ports, but now with sustained improvement in productivity (85% of normal levels), Bashir says the company expects continued improvements to reach normal in the next two weeks.
But shippers shouldn’t expect supply chains to be immediately or fully repaired.
“We ask that you bear with us as we manage this transition. We need to ensure that it’s done in a controlled way in order to avoid creating new bottlenecks in Yantian or in neighboring ports,” Bashir adds.
And while officials believe they can eliminate piles of stacked containers within a couple of weeks the backlog of shipments piled up in factories and warehouses elsewhere in the region will take at least a month to clear.
“As we navigate through this, the situation will remain fluid for quite some time,” he says.
