China Ports Reefer Discharge Disruption

In view of the extended holiday in China as a result of the Coronavirus spread control, the inbound cargo delivery in China has been seriously affected. Some of the terminals in China are now encountering serious congestion with full utilization of the terminal plugs in the ports of Shanghai, Xingang and Ningbo. As a consequence, some of the inbound reefer containers may not be able to discharge upon vessel arrival, resulting in a forced diversion of discharge at an alternative port due to operational constraint, which is beyond our control.

Referring to Bill of Lading clauses in particular clauses 15, 17 and 18, all extra costs including but not limited to storage, demurrage, power, monitoring, plugging and unplugging at the alternative discharging port and subsequent extra on-carriage cost to original destination shall be for Merchant’s account and payable upon delivery.

For shipments en-route for these Chinese ports, customers are encouraged to arrange change of destination to other ports, in order to avoid any last-minute re-routing with extra cost incurred.

For new bookings to these Chinese ports, please be reminded there might be possible diversion and extra costs in case of the continuous rejection of discharge by the terminal.

Thank you for your understanding and for your continued support of OOCL. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact our local customer representatives.

Yours faithfully,

OOCL (Australia) Pty Ltd.