Typhoon Kompasu leads to worst container shipping jam

Typhoon Kompasu has resulted in the worst container shipping traffic jam in months, stretching throughout Southeast Asia and may take weeks to unravel. Although port operations are largely back to normal in Shenzhen and Hong Kong after the tropical storm’s passing, the total container ship count off the two vital hubs had ballooned to 271 as of early Friday, the highest count recorded since Bloomberg News started tracking the data in April.
At least 109 ships were meanwhile reported as anchored and waiting to enter the ports, up from 67 on Thursday.
“The supply chain is very stretched, with no buffer, so any little event will cause another big problem,” James Teo, Bloomberg Intelligence, said. “There are too many choke points.” Teo expects port congestion likely to continue until at least Feb. 2022.