Ships Dock Again at Chinese Port Terminal Ningbo

Ships dock again at the previously shut down terminal of the port of Ningbo, China. This increases the optimism that one of the busiest ports in the world will be fully operational again in the foreseeable future.

One of the terminals was closed for two weeks by order of the authorities due to a corona outbreak because dock workers had to be quarantined.

At least five container ships have left the Meishan terminal in Ningbo in recent days after docking, Bloomberg news agency reported, citing collected shipping data. It was still not possible to collect containers on Tuesday. However, some ships have been allowed to dock, an official from the Ningbo-Zhoushan port said.

The Meishan terminal has been partially back in service since August 18 and is expected to return to full operation in the coming weeks gradually, shipping company CMA CGM said in a message to customers. However, the French company has now seen two of its ships depart from the terminal in question.

The terminal in question accounts for about a quarter of the container throughput from the port of Ningbo. The terminal was closed on August 11, when an employee was found to be infected with the Delta variant of Covid-19.

The partial closure of the world’s third-busiest container port exacerbated congestion at other key Chinese ports such as Shanghai, Xiamen and Hong Kong as ships were diverted. Meanwhile, there was uncertainty about how long the virus-fighting measures would last.