China’s major port hit by congestion ahead of holiday, Trump’s tariff threat from Reuters
BEIJING (Reuters) – Exporters sped up this week to load and ship cargo from Shenzhen’s Yantian Port, one of the world’s biggest container ports, ahead of an eight-day New Year holiday and ahead of a potential wave of U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.
Yantian, which handles one-third of Guangdong’s international trade and one-quarter of China’s exports to the United States, has already increased its daily quota on containers by 15% to 15,000 units during Jan. 20-28, according to a statement on Wednesday.
On Thursday night, it takes Li Guoliang, a truck driver, two hours to transport a loaded container to the port’s container yard – double the time he spends on normal days.
“The main reason is that factories rushed to ship before the holiday, and the limited quota of containers at the port and container yard space resulted in congestion,” Li told Reuters.
Another trucking company told Reuters the driver had been stuck in the port area for more than 24 hours on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that his administration was discussing a 10% punitive duty on Chinese imports, with a February 1 deadline for a potential decision, which could hurt US demand for Chinese goods.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said Thursday that China is ready to work with the United States to promote stable and healthy development of economic and trade ties, when asked about Trump’s threat of fresh tariffs.
Chinese factories and American customers took action long before Trump took office earlier this week.
Some U.S. companies had front-loaded shipments of toys, furniture and electronics, and built inventories ahead of Trump’s new tariffs, boosting Chinese exports to the U.S. in December.
In 2024, container throughput at Yantian increased nearly 7% year-on-year to a record 17.365 million standard containers. That was in line with a 14.6% jump in Shenzhen’s exports last year to a new all-time high of 2.81 trillion yuan.
As congestion at the port of Yantian worsened this week, shipping fees increased, denting exporters’ bottom lines.
Freight charges from Shenzhen’s Fuyong, a logistics hub, to Yantian port have risen to more than 2,500 yuan ($345) from 1,000 yuan before.
Due to the congestion in Yantian, there may also be an additional fee for discarding containers of more than 1,000 yuan.
Li said Trump’s tariff threat was to blame for the congestion.
“If it doesn’t matter, why wouldn’t the factories ship after the LNY holiday?”
($ 1 = 7.2551 renminbi)
