IN Brief:
- Five severe typhoons have disrupted vessel schedules, terminal operations, and cargo flows across East Asia.
- All 14 of the region’s busiest ports have recorded weaker on-time vessel arrivals.
- Existing global port congestion above 4.3 million TEU leaves less spare capacity for schedule recovery.
Five severe typhoons making landfall across East Asia within two weeks have added further disruption to container shipping, with flooding, congestion, and vessel delays affecting major port rotations across the region. Maersk said the 2026 season has produced above-normal activity, with typhoons Bara, Dolphin, Narra, Peilou, and Chan-Hom contributing to operational disruption.
The carrier said all 14 of East Asia’s busiest ports are experiencing a decrease in on-time vessel arrivals, citing Sea-Intelligence data. The disruption continues after individual terminals reopen because ships that lose berth windows can reach subsequent ports outside the sequence around which cranes, pilots, tugs, feeder services, road collections, and rail connections were planned.
Maersk is adjusting cargo flows and operating plans across its network while working with terminals and port groups to reduce waiting times. It has also warned that typhoon Saudel could return and that further tropical cyclones are expected to form, leaving schedule recovery vulnerable to another round of disruption.
East Asian port delays were already absorbing a substantial amount of effective container capacity before the latest storms moved through the network. Global port congestion had exceeded 4.3 million TEU of vessel capacity by late August, with repeated storms in East Asia among the main causes of queues and schedule displacement.
The absolute queue is larger than the roughly 4.0 million TEU recorded at the pandemic-era peak in 2022, although today’s larger global fleet means the proportion of worldwide capacity affected is lower. Around 12.6% of the 34.4 million TEU containership fleet was caught in congestion at the late-August measurement, compared with 15.7% of a 25.3 million TEU fleet at the earlier peak.
Schedule reliability had also weakened before the newest weather disruption. Sea-Intelligence data for July put global schedule reliability at 56.4%, down 6.1 percentage points from June, while vessels arriving late were delayed by an average of 6.06 days. Ships remain in the nominal fleet during those delays, but they cannot complete rotations or begin subsequent voyages on time while waiting for berths.
The operational problem is therefore the accumulation of timing failures across a rotation rather than the duration of a single closure. A vessel that loses a day at one gateway can find its next berth unavailable, while export containers may already have been gated in and onward transport booked around an arrival time that has shifted. Recovery then competes with scheduled calls for the same terminal resources.
Maersk said its Gemini network has so far limited some of the impact through its modular operating structure, although the region has not returned to normal conditions. Cargo-flow adjustments, alternative routings, additional buffer time, and accurate documentation remain part of the response while terminals process accumulated queues.
Nominal fleet growth consequently does not translate directly into usable weekly capacity. The larger fleet provides more headroom than the market had in 2022, but that headroom is consumed when ships wait outside congested terminals, sail longer routes, or lose days recovering schedules. The practical supply of container slots depends on how quickly ships complete rotations, not simply on the number of TEU listed on fleet registers.
Weather disruption can also relocate congestion inland. When several delayed vessels arrive close together after closures are lifted, terminals face a compressed discharge and loading workload, while hauliers, rail operators, empty-container depots, and distribution centres receive cargo in peaks rather than the pattern originally planned. The effect can continue long after the port itself has resumed normal opening hours.
Wider arrival variability also changes inventory requirements. Importers either carry more buffer stock or accept greater exposure to production and fulfilment plans being disrupted by late containers. Earlier visibility of revised arrivals, reliable transhipment information, and enough inland flexibility to absorb bunching become more valuable as schedule variance increases.
Maersk expects to continue adjusting operational plans over the coming weeks as it monitors both weather conditions and port recovery. Further tropical activity remains possible while congestion is already above previous absolute records, leaving terminals with little margin if another sequence of closures interrupts the current backlog reduction.
