Main Chinese language port hit by congestion forward of vacation, Trump tariff menace

BEIJING (Reuters) – Exporters this week jostled to load and ship cargo from Shenzhen’s Yantian Port, one of many world’s largest container ports, earlier than an eight-day Lunar New Yr vacation and forward of a possible wave of U.S. tariffs on Chinese language items.

Yantian, which handles one-third of Guangdong’s worldwide commerce and one-quarter of China’s exports to america, already elevated the each day quota on containers by 15% to fifteen,000 models throughout Jan. 20-28, the port stated in an announcement on Wednesday.

It took Li Guoliang, a truck driver, two hours on Thursday night to move a loaded container to a container yard on the port – quadrupling the time he spends on regular days.

“The foremost cause is that factories rushed to ship earlier than the vacation, and restricted container quota on the port and area at container yards resulted within the congestion,” Li advised Reuters.

One other truck firm advised Reuters {that a} driver was caught within the port space for greater than 24 hours on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump stated on Tuesday that his administration was discussing a ten% punitive obligation on Chinese language imports, with Feb. 1 a possible deadline for a choice, which may damage U.S. demand for Chinese language merchandise.

The Chinese language commerce ministry stated on Thursday that China was keen to work with america to advertise steady and wholesome improvement of financial and commerce ties, when requested about Trump’s menace of recent tariffs.

Chinese language factories and U.S. consumers had taken motion lengthy earlier than Trump took workplace earlier this week.

Some U.S. firms had frontloaded shipments of toys, furnishings and electronics, and constructed up inventories forward of any new Trump tariffs, driving China’s exports to the U.S. in December.

In 2024, container throughput at Yantian grew practically 7% year-on-year to a document 17.365 million customary containers. That was consistent with the 14.6% leap in Shenzhen’s exports final yr to a brand new all-time excessive of two.81 trillion yuan.

Because the congestion at Yantian Port worsened this week, trucking charges rose, denting exporters’ backside line.

Trucking charges from Shenzhen’s Fuyong, a logistics hub, to Yantian Port rose to greater than 2,500 yuan ($345) from 1,000 yuan prior.

On account of congestion at Yantian, there may additionally be an extra container drop-off payment of greater than 1,000 yuan.

Li stated Trump’s tariff menace was to be blamed for the congestion.

“If there isn’t a relation, why would not the factories ship the products after the LNY holidays?”

($1 = 7.2551 Chinese language yuan renminbi)