Meishan container terminal at Ningbo-Zhoushan closed for two weeks
Meishan container terminal at Ningbo-Zhoushan closed for two weeks. The disruption ran from 2021-08-11 (11 August 2021) to 2021-08-25 (25 August 2021), 15 days, affecting Ningbo. No measured effect is published for this event; the effect section explains why.
Key facts
- Started
- 2021-08-11 (11 August 2021)
- Ended
- 2021-08-25 (25 August 2021)
- Status
- ended
- Type
- Terminal closure
- Severity
- 2 Moderate
- Scope
- terminal
- Chokepoints
- None
- Ports
- Ningbo
- Lanes
- None
- Countries
- China
- Confidence
- high: The closure and reopening dates come from a carrier advisory updated through the closure and are consistent across two trade outlets. The window does not overlap Lunar New Year or China's National Day holiday exclusions.
- First reported
- 2021-08-11 (11 August 2021)
- Severity basis: A single terminal inside the port was closed for 14 days, which meets the criterion of a terminal closure over 72 hours.
What happened
The Meishan Island International Container Terminal at Ningbo-Zhoushan stopped container gate and vessel work on 2021-08-11 (11 August 2021) after a terminal worker tested positive for COVID-19, and reopened on 2021-08-25 (25 August 2021). Trucking to and from the terminal was suspended, a nearby warehouse stopped work, and carriers moved calls to other Ningbo terminals including Beilun and Yongzhou or skipped the port to protect schedules. The rest of Ningbo-Zhoushan stayed open throughout. Trade press reported at the time that the shutdown risked repeating the congestion seen at Yantian in Shenzhen earlier in 2021, with about 140 container ships already waiting off Ningbo and Shanghai. Gate and berthing work resumed on 2021-08-25, with landside services restarting in stages.
Measured effect
No measured effect is published for this event. The disruption was too small or too imprecisely dated to separate from normal variation in a port-level daily series.
Meishan is one terminal inside the Ningbo-Zhoushan port series. A closure at that level sits below the resolution of the port level series we publish, so no effect is measured for this record.
Timeline
- The terminal stops container gate in and gate out work under local COVID-19 controls after a worker tests positive. Vessel operations at the terminal stop and trucking to the site is suspended. [s1] [s2]
- Trade press reports that carriers in the Ocean Alliance are among the main users of the terminal and warns of congestion spreading, with about 140 container ships already waiting off Ningbo and Shanghai after Typhoon In-Fa. [s2]
- Container gate in, gate out and vessel berthing resume at the terminal. Warehouse and other landside services restart in stages the same day. [s1] [s3]
Cause
The terminal was locked down under COVID-19 controls imposed by the local authorities after a terminal worker tested positive, according to the carrier advisory tracking the closure. Attributed by: Maersk, citing local authorities. [s1]
Resolution
Corrections
No corrections to this record as of 2026-09-16 (16 September 2026).
Sources
- [s1] Maersk, Greater China Ningbo port operations update, published 2021-08-12 (12 August 2021), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (official)
- [s2] gCaptain, Ningbo Terminal Closure Could Spark New Congestion Crisis, published 2021-08-11 (11 August 2021), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (press)
- [s3] Container Management, Operations resume at Ningbo Meishan Island International Container Terminal, published 2021-08-26 (26 August 2021), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (press)