Typhoon Dolphin Deepens China Port Congestion, Lifts Freight Rate Pressure

Global Ocean Freight News

What Happened

Ocean carriers and shippers are facing another round of delays after the ports of Shanghai and Ningbo temporarily closed over the weekend as Typhoon Dolphin struck China’s East Coast, the storm being one of the strongest cyclones to hit China so far this year, disrupted both coastal and inland supply chains. Shipping data notes more than 2.4 million TEUs of container ship capacity were stranded as the aftermath of the storm. Operations resumed at Ningbo on Monday afternoon and Shanghai on Tuesday morning, however the congestion and since spread south towards Qingdao and Shenzhen as the vessel queues, berth availability and ships arriving outside their planned windows are expected to keep pressure on schedules while terminals work through the accumulated backlog.

Why it’s Happening

It's the third typhoon to strike China's east coast in five weeks, following Typhoon Bavi and Typhoon Noul in July, each of which left its own residual backlog before the next storm arrived. Shanghai's vessel queue had fallen to a two-year low just days before Dolphin made landfall there were 15 vessels waiting at Shanghai and six at Ningbo as of August 3, meaning the port network had barely recovered from the last disruption when this one hit. That compounding pattern is what makes this different from a single isolated closure: each storm adds to a backlog that hasn't finished clearing from the one before it, tracking shows vessel counts at anchorage jumping sharply within days of reopening from essentially zero vessels sheltering in the anchorage on August 9 to 117 back at Shanghai and 60 at Ningbo by August 12.

What it means

For transpacific shippers, this is arriving at the worst possible moment. It is already linked the constrained container capacity to renewed support for trans-Pacific freight rates, meaning Dolphin's disruption is reinforcing the same peak-season rate pressure that's already pushed Asia–US East Coast spot rates to a 2026 high. Cargo that was supposed to move through Shanghai or Ningbo this month now faces vessel waits to stretch to five days even after terminals reopened, on top of whatever backlog carriers are still working through from July's storms. The pattern also raises a planning question that goes beyond this one storm: with three typhoons in five weeks and recovery windows shrinking between them, shippers relying on North Asia's east coast gateways may need to build in longer buffers through the rest of this year's typhoon season rather than treating each closure as a one-off event to route around.

Short- Term Outlook

The backlog is anticipated to remain elevated before conditions normalize. Clearing the more than 2.4 million TEU of affected containership capacity is expected to take several weeks rather than days, with vessel bunching and schedule disruptions continuing around Shanghai and Ningbo as carriers adjust rotations and reschedule services. With China’s typhoon season typically remaining active throughout September, the possibility of further weather- related disruptions could prolong the recovery and add to existing congestion. In the near term, freight charges are anticipated to face upward pressure as constrained effective capacity supports transpacific pricing, Shippers moving cargo from Shanghai and Ningbo over the next two to three weeks should therefore allow additional lead times, monitor carriers’ schedules closely and consider booking earlier to mitigate the risk of vessel delays, blank sailings and longer transits times.