Ships have been getting out of Hong Kong and other ports in the Greater Bay Area in southern China as Typhoon Ma-on makes landfall in the vicinity this morning (25 August) local time.
S&P Global Market Intelligence’s vessel-tracking data shows that currently, just one boxship, Swire & Sons-operated 95 TEU Mo Sing Leng, is in Hong Kong, while 24 other container vessels have sought refuge in the anchorages. Forty-five other container ships departed Hong Kong in the last 24 hours.
Chinese meteorological services said that the centre of Ma-on is on the northern surface of the South China Sea, about 210 kilometres south-east of Zhanjiang in Guangdong province. The storm then travelled at 30km/hour in the northwestern direction, causing heavy rains in Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan provinces and around the Pearl River Delta.
In Shenzhen, there are no container ships in the main sub-ports of Yantian and Shekou, while 10 other container ships are in the anchorages.
All ships in Zhanjiang Port have left the berths before midnight today to enter the anchorages, and all the crew members of unpowered ships in the port have been evacuated to shore. The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge has suspended water traffic, prohibiting any ship from passing through the channel.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
