Southern Japanese ports resume operations, factories still shut

SHIPPING company employees are making it in to work in tsunami-stricken Japan only to find there is little to do when they get there.

"The phones aren`t ringing," Tim Smith, Maersk`s North Asia chief, told the New York Times from his Hong Kong office, adding that only a third of Maersk`s employees in Japan made it in to work because trains were not running.


Singapore-based MCC Transport, Maersk`s intra-Asia unit, said there was no damage reported at main ports, Yokohama, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka and Hakata, reported American Shipper.


Factories have closed because of power cuts, Mr Smith said, adding that Maersk expected energy-intensive factories and those producing raw materials to stay closed the longest.


Alphaliner reported that at least six medium-sized container ports were badly damaged. Although the affected ports handle less than two per cent of the country`s container volume, the impact on the overall economy in the coming months will be difficult to quantify, said Alphaliner.


The largest container port damaged by the earthquake were Sendai Shiogama, which handled about 200,000 TEU last year and the port of Hachinohe that handled 50,000 TEU.


Cargo from the tsunami battered northeast is mostly cameras and tyres, said the report. The region also produces computer chips, watches and other precision instruments, though these tend to move out by truck and exported as air cargo.


Hong Kong`s Orient Overseas group told media at its financial results press conference that 10 per cent of its volume goes through Japan, and that it was unaware of any major damage done to berths and cranes it frequents. OOCL had lost 500 containers destroyed by the tsunami, but few of these contained cargo.


Neptune Orient Lines said vessels had suffered delays at Yokohoma because of power failures, but that port calls at Kobe had been unaffected.


The northeast coastal ports of Hachinohe, Sendai, Ishinomaki and Onahama have suffered so much damage that they are not expected to reopen for months, if not years, said London`s International Freighting Weekly.


Hanjin Shipping said: "Most of our terminals in Japan, including Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka, resumed normal operations. However, due to the backlog of the vessels waiting for berth, some delay is expected."


Like other shipping lines, Taipei`s Wan Hai and Japan`s MOL and NYK, Marseilles-based CMA CGM Group took emergency measures. The French shipping giant has set up an emergency and communication response team to keep in with employees in Japan and ensures business continuity.


The company has proposed to make available a number of containers to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Medecins Sans Frontieres and the UN`s World Food Programme.


NYK president Yasumi Kudo and has matched MOL`s earlier JNY50 million (US$$608,394) donation in response to the earthquake to aid people of the area.