Cargo operations out of South China are expected to slow down in the coming days as Typhoon Ragasa made landfall in the country’s Guangdong province early Wednesday, forcing the closure of factories in the manufacturing hub, shuttering several container terminals across major seaports and grounding flights at airports.
The storm, which claimed the lives of 17 people in nearby Taiwan and 10 more in the Phillipines, is considered the strongest tropical cyclone in the northwestern Pacific and South China Sea region so far this year, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.
Although Ragasa was downgraded from a “super” to “severe” typhoon on Wednesday, hurricane-force winds still reportedly topped out at 150 miles per hour.
Shipping delays across ocean and air freight are anticipated as some of South China’s largest logistics hubs come back online Thursday.
Yantian International Container Terminal, a major hub within the Port of Shenzhen that handles more than one fourth of China’s exports to the U.S., suspended operations Monday ahead of the storm.
Additionally, the Ports of Nansha and Shekou both closed down Monday, before the Port of Hong Kong halted operations on Tuesday.
All terminals are expected to reopen by Thursday morning, with both large container ships and feeder services projected to resume service. Several reports indicate that these closures are among the longest lasting in South China in recent years.
Ocean freight out of the affected areas is forecast to experience three-to-seven day delays following the typhoon, according to a Wednesday update from Seko Logistics.
Vietnam is in Ragasa’s pathway, with the storm set to hit the northern part of the country Thursday morning. According to Seko, Hai Phong Port is currently operating without delay, but weather alerts remain active. Vessel movements may be suspended temporarily depending on storm progression.
Port authorities at Vietnam’s Cai Mep and Cat Lai ports may halt operations if conditions worsen, which would compound the current two-to-three-day delays spawned by congestion.
Air freight out of the region will see multi-days delays as the airports gradually resume to normal function.
Hong Kong International Airport, the busiest cargo airport in the world that handled 4.9 million metric tons of cargo during 2024, is currently in a 36-hour suspension of passenger flights. The airport first halted flights Tuesday, and expects to reopen Thursday morning.
Around 1,000 flights have been affected, including 500 operated by Cathay Pacific.
Ahead of the typhoon’s arrival on Wednesday, about 80 percent of the aircraft belonging to the four main airlines based in Hong Kong had been relocated to or grounded at airports in China, Japan, Cambodia, Europe, Australia and other locations, according to tracking data from Flightradar24.
Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport has cancelled all flights until Wednesday evening. According to Seko, this will further strain cargo capacity ahead of the “Golden Week” holiday from Oct. 1-7, which is likely to cause inventory clearance delays of around three to seven days.
Shippers may consider diverting cargo to alternative airports such as Xiamen or Ezhou, Seko says.
Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport will resume flight operations starting Wednesday evening, following the cancelled 210 departing flights and 319 incoming flights. Delays of around two to three days are expected for all air freight shipments.
According to data from air cargo market research firm Rotate, 30,000 metric tons of cargo across China, Hong Kong and Taiwan will have been held up through Thursday morning.
When going more upstream into the supply chain, factories were closed in roughly a dozen cities, including Shenzhen, according to a report from the South China Morning Post.
The closures come ahead of Golden Week, when all factories will shut down for the holiday—thus narrowing the time manufacturers can ship goods out of China ahead of the break.
The factories are likely to reopen Thursday depending on local conditions.
The typhoon and expected backlogs follow a strong August for China’s top ports, with the Shanghai and Ningbo gateways recording their highest-ever monthly container throughput throughout the month despite the massive trade shifts.
Total volumes at the two largest Chinese ports exceeded 5 million and 4 million TEUs respectively in the past month. Despite Chinese exports to the U.S. sinking 33 percent in August, total exports were buoyed by significant growth recorded on the Intra-Asia, Indian subcontinent, Latin America and Africa routes.
