11 August 2026

Air & Ocean Market Update | Typhoon Dolphin

Typhoon Dolphin made landfall on China’s eastern coast on Sunday, bringing strong winds, torrential rainfall, and a heightened risk of flooding and landslides. Port and terminal operations across Shanghai, Ningbo Zhoushan, and other locations in Zhejiang have been suspended or restricted. Reopening and recovery timeframes will depend on local conditions and safety assessments.

This disruption comes at a time when Chinese ports are already experiencing congestion. Shanghai is currently reporting berthing delays of approximately 3 to 9 days, depending on the terminal, together with high yard utilisation and growing vessel queues. Ningbo Zhoushan and several other major Chinese gateways are also experiencing congestion, schedule disruption, and pressure on terminal capacity.

Typhoon Dolphin is therefore expected to place further pressure on an already congested port network. Customers with cargo moving through China should prepare for:

• Delayed vessel departures and arrivals
• Further changes to carrier schedules and port rotations
• Vessel bunching and extended berth waiting times
• Rolled bookings and missed transhipment connections
• Changes to terminal cut-off and container receiving dates
• Increased pressure on container availability, trucking and storage capacity
• Flow-on delays at destination ports as vessels arrive outside their planned windows

The Mainfreight Asia team are safe and are closely monitoring terminal conditions and carrier advisories. We will continue to provide shipment specific updates as revised schedules and terminal reopening arrangements become available.
 
We recommend allowing additional lead time for upcoming orders and maintaining greater flexibility around production completion, cargo ready dates, and required delivery dates.