A combination of the extended Lunar New Year holidays in a bid to slow the spread of the virus, combined with blanked sailings by carriers could result in an estimated 6m teu drop in Chinese container port volumes including Hong Kong.
“The full impact of the Chinese coronavirus outbreak on container volumes will not be fully measurable until ports announce their throughput numbers for the first quarter, but data collected on weekly container vessel calls at key Chinese ports already shows a reduction of over 20% since 20 January,” Alphaliner said in its weekly report.
Chinese ports remain open for business with the exception of those in Wuhan, which handled 1.7m teu in 2019.
Read all Seatrade Maritime News coverage on the impact of the coronavirus on shipping
Copyright © 2023. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited.
