Typhoon Saudel opened a new front of pressure for supply chains that depend on China’s major ports, particularly Shanghai and Ningbo , where operations were already suffering from delays, congestion and changes to shipping routes as a result of previous weather phenomena.
Typhoon Saudel made landfall twice on Friday, August 28, in the eastern province of Zhejiang, first around 8:05 a.m. in Taizhou and then around 9:10 a.m. in Wenzhou. The storm brought heavy rains, evacuations, and disruptions to the region’s transportation systems , including the temporary suspension of rail services and ferry operations in Zhejiang, according to Reuters.
For maritime logistics , however, the impact takes on another dimension. Saudel did not find Chinese ports operating under normal conditions, but rather a network that during August had accumulated disruptions associated with an intense typhoon season, particularly Bavi and Dolphin.
Hapag-Lloyd is, so far, one of the shipping companies that has directly linked the deterioration of port operations to Typhoon Saudel. In its operational update for Asia and Oceania for week 35, published on August 26, the company reported longer waiting times at Chinese ports due to congestion following Typhoons Bavi, Dolphin, and Saudel, and anticipated closures in Shanghai and Ningbo between August 26 and 29.
The shipping company also reported various adjustments to its itineraries . Among them was the APL Mexico City , which would omit Ningbo and modify its rotation to serve Shanghai first, while other vessels omitted Shanghai or changed the sequence of their calls due to vessel grouping and berth congestion.
The cumulative effect of the weather events had begun to be visible several weeks earlier. CMA CGM reported on August 13 that, following Typhoon Dolphin, average waiting times reached 10 days in Shanghai, five days in Ningbo, and three days in Shekou. This situation led the shipping company to temporarily recommend using Ningbo instead of Shanghai for certain land routes and to implement contingency plans for its services.
Among the adjustments was the MEX 1 service . CMA CGM reported omissions from Shanghai by various vessels, as well as cancellations of calls in Xiamen and Shekou and the transfer of cargo to other voyages. This situation illustrates how the impact on a port does not necessarily end with the reopening of the terminals: the accumulation of ships and containers can shift delays to subsequent ports of call in a rotation.
A week later, on August 20, the shipping company was still reporting repercussions from Dolphin. CMA CGM maintained contingency plans that included omitting Shanghai and Shekou, using Hong Kong and Singapore for connections, and transferring cargo to other services, while warning that waiting times remained high, especially in Shanghai.
Maersk had also warned since mid-August that weather conditions continued to affect maritime operations in the Asia-Pacific region. In its regional update of August 14, it noted that the typhoon season could cause temporary port restrictions, itinerary changes, and delays, and that it was maintaining contingency measures to ensure the continuity of its network.
On August 24, just days before the Saudel strike, Maersk announced that the Delos Wave 630N would skip Shanghai due to recent adverse weather conditions affecting its regional schedule. The decision aimed to minimize delays to the vessel’s subsequent port calls .
The company had also announced adjustments to its Dragon service since early August, including modifications to port windows in Ningbo, Hong Kong and Yantian with the aim of improving the reliability of schedules and reducing the effects of weather and operational disruptions at terminals.
Ocean Network Express (ONE) , for its part, has not publicly linked the recent changes identified in its network to Saudel, although it also made modifications between Shanghai and Ningbo during August . On August 21, it announced a temporary change to its Pacific South 4 (PS4) service, whereby certain sailings would replace Shanghai with Ningbo between September and September, while Shanghai’s export cargo would be handled by another service.
Mexico’s exposure can be seen on another of ONE’s routes. Its Asia Latin America Express 4 (AX4) service maintains a rotation connecting Shanghai, Ningbo, Qingdao, and Busan with Ensenada, Lázaro Cárdenas, and Manzanillo before continuing to Callao, Posorja, and returning to Asia. In other words, the two Chinese ports facing the greatest weather and operational challenges are directly integrated with three Mexican ports within this weekly network.
This does not mean that all shipments from China to Mexico will automatically be delayed by Typhoon Saudel, nor that the modifications previously announced by shipping lines are a consequence of the new typhoon. However, the sequence of events increases the risk that disruptions will spread throughout shipping rotations through changes in estimated time of arrival (ETA), loss of berth windows, port omissions, container repositioning, and subsequent connections.
However, spot prices for ocean freight on the Asia-Mexico-South American West Coast route remained above seven thousand dollars per 40-foot container (FEU) until August 24, according to the weekly EAX index from Eternity Group Mexico .
As of the time of this report, a review of public communications from Maersk, CMA CGM, COSCO Shipping Lines , MSC , Hapag-Lloyd, ONE, and Evergreen identified the most direct public reference to Typhoon Saudel in Hapag-Lloyd’s communications. No specific communications attributing operational disruptions to the new typhoon were found on the websites and in the public notices consulted from COSCO, MSC, and Evergreen , while the documents found from Maersk, CMA CGM, and ONE primarily reflected the weather disruptions and adjustments made prior to its arrival.
The distinction is important because some of the pressure currently observed in the Chinese maritime network cannot be attributed solely to Saudel. This new phenomenon adds to a sequence of events that had already forced shipping lines to reorganize their routes and transfer cargo, while ports like Shanghai continued trying to absorb accumulated delays.
Saudel’s arrival also comes at a particularly sensitive time for international trade. September is typically a key period for shipments from China ahead of the National Day holiday and the so-called Golden Week in October , when industrial production and various services temporarily slow down. If the backlog in Shanghai and Ningbo is slow to clear, importers and logistics operators could face less predictability in departure and arrival dates in the coming weeks.
Thus, the main logistical risk of a typhoon is not only in the hours during which a terminal remains closed. A disruption of one or two days can have far-reaching consequences when ships return simultaneously, terminals must absorb accumulated containers , and shipping lines try to recover their schedules by changing rotations or omitting port calls.
For Mexico, attention should now focus on the evolution of transpacific services connecting Shanghai and Ningbo with Manzanillo, Lázaro Cárdenas, and Ensenada. It will be in the upcoming sailings that we can observe whether the new weather event is absorbed by the network or if Saudel deepens a chain of delays that has already begun to affect maritime routes from Asia.
Comment and follow us on LinkedIn: @GrupoT21
