Friday, October 23, 2026
The news that moves freight
Ocean Oct 23, 2026 · 7 min read

Champi halts Zhoushan bunkering and shuts Taiwan

No fuel at Zhoushan, 166 flights cut in Taiwan: Champi’s toll starts before it arrives. All bunkering at Zhoushan, a major Chinese ship-fuelling hub, stopped on 22 October with no restart date, ENGINE reported. Taiwan saw 166 flights cancelled and shut its stock market for Friday. Our view: the storm is doing damage offshore. Ships that cannot refuel at Zhoushan will slip their schedules. Shanghai and Ningbo already ran about four days late, Platts says. One China-based shipper told Platts ports could be “affected for one to two weeks.” Our call: Shanghai and Ningbo-Zhoushan terminals will halt at least part of their work for 12 hours or more between Friday night and Sunday 25 October.

Champi has not reached China, and Zhoushan’s fuel barges have already stopped

Ships can no longer refuel anywhere at Zhoushan. On 22 October, ENGINE reported that a source said “All bunker operations have now been suspended”, without confirming when they would resume. Bunkering is the business of refuelling ships at anchor or alongside. Zhoushan, the island group beside Ningbo, is a major Chinese bunkering hub. Earlier in the week, ENGINE said, fuelling had already stopped at the outer Tiaozhoumen and Xiazhimen anchorages but carried on at Xiushandong and the inner Mazhi anchorage. Now those have stopped too.

At the same time, Taiwan has closed for the day. Its stock exchange suspended trading on Friday 23 October and schools shut in most areas, Bloomberg reported. By 6pm on Thursday, 166 flights had been cancelled.

Our view is simple. Typhoon Champi is already costing East China shipping time, and it has not touched the mainland yet. Ports that were running late before the storm are now losing the services that keep ships moving: fuel, flights, rail and ferries. Forwarders should plan for a slow week after the storm, not a quick bounce on Monday.

Where the storm is and where it is going

The Hong Kong Observatory, quoted by ENGINE, says Champi’s maximum sustained winds near the centre peaked at 250 km/h on Tuesday and Wednesday, 20 and 21 October. By 22 October they had eased to 195 km/h. It is still a super typhoon on that measure. Bloomberg, writing the same day, put top winds at 213 km/h, equal to a Category 4 hurricane, with the storm about 713 km southwest of Okinawa.

Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration said that at 06:00 GMT on 22 October Champi was moving northwest at about 15 km/h, ENGINE reported. Bloomberg said it was forecast to pass closest to northern Taiwan late Friday into Saturday. It would then move along the eastern Chinese coast over the weekend before heading toward Kyushu in Japan. Both forecasting agencies expect it to weaken once it enters the East China Sea on Saturday. ENGINE says it is then forecast to pass east of Zhoushan over the weekend and weaken to a tropical storm by Sunday.

There is real doubt about the track. Bloomberg reported that AI-based weather models keep Champi offshore, while many physics-based models show a brief landfall over northern Taiwan. James Caron of Atmospheric G2 told Bloomberg that up to 18 inches (457 mm) of rain could fall over greater Taipei.

The China Meteorological Administration expects heavy rain in Shanghai and parts of Zhejiang province this weekend, Bloomberg said. Zhejiang is the province that holds Ningbo and Zhoushan.

This has been a busy season. The Hong Kong Observatory says Champi is the 10th storm in the northwest Pacific this year to reach super typhoon strength. That is double the long-term average, and just short of the record 13 in 2015, Bloomberg reported.

Fuel: the hidden delay

Fuel rarely makes the headlines in a typhoon. It should. A container ship calling at Ningbo may plan to bunker at Zhoushan on the same call. If it cannot, the master has three choices. Wait for the barges to restart. Fuel at the next port, if the ship has enough on board to get there. Or divert. Each choice adds time, and some add cost.

The lead times tell the story. ENGINE reported that some Zhoushan suppliers are now recommending lead times of around 13 days for VLSFO, which is very low sulphur fuel oil, the standard fuel for most ships. For HSFO, high sulphur fuel oil burned by ships fitted with exhaust scrubbers, the advice is around 11 days. A lead time is how far ahead a ship has to book its fuel. When it stretches to nearly two weeks, a ship that turns up wanting fuel next week will not get it promptly.

That matters even after the wind drops. Barges restart, but they restart into a queue. Ships that skipped fuel this weekend will be at the front of it, alongside the ships booked for next week.

Ports were late before the storm arrived

Shanghai and Ningbo were not starting from a clean position. Platts reported on 22 October that market participants said congestion was already causing delays of around four days at Shanghai and Ningbo, and expected port disruptions to worsen after the typhoon.

One China-based shipper told Platts: “Congestion-related delays are expected to increase, with ports potentially affected for one to two weeks.” The same shipper added: “Freight rates may also rise.” A Southeast Asian shipper expected the typhoon to reach the Chinese coast around Saturday and Sunday, 24 and 25 October, with a clearer picture by Monday 26 October.

Platts also said carriers had been omitting port calls to avoid congestion. That has tightened space on the North Asia and Southeast Asia to Australia trade. Its PCR 45 assessment, North Asia to the east coast of Australia, stood at $5,300 per FEU (a 40-foot container). PCR 47, North Asia to the west coast of Australia, was $5,200 per FEU. Both were flat on the day. An Australian port authority told Platts that September had already seen around five missed vessel calls across four services from Southeast Asia.

We read that as a warning. Rates are holding, not falling, on a lane where carriers are already skipping calls. A weekend of lost port time gives them more reason to skip again.

What happened last time

East China has been here before, twice in recent memory.

In September 2021, Typhoon Chanthu never hit Ningbo-Zhoushan or Shanghai’s Yangshan terminals directly, Maritime Executive reported. The ports shut anyway. “Container terminal operations at Ningbo wound down on Sunday, well in advance of Chanthu’s arrival,” it wrote. “Shanghai Yangshan, Waigaoqiao and Wusong all closed their truck gates effective Monday morning.” In Zhoushan, “cargo and marine operations have been closed since Saturday.” The lesson is that Chinese port authorities close for the forecast, not the landfall.

This August, Typhoon Dolphin showed what a closure looks like for cargo. C.H. Robinson’s advisory of 10 August said “port operations at Yangshan and Waigaoqiao remain suspended”, with “cargo being held at warehouses until terminal services resume”. At Ningbo, multiple terminals stopped receiving and releasing containers. “These operations resumed at 16:00 local time on Monday August 10,” the advisory said. In the air, “Over 1,300 inbound and outbound flights were cancelled at Shanghai’s two airports on August 9”. Export air cargo was “expected to experience delays of at least one to two days”.

Champi is following the same script so far. The difference is that this time the ports were already about four days behind before the storm.

Taiwan: air and transhipment hit on Friday and Saturday

Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration said that by 6pm on Thursday 22 October, 126 domestic flights and 40 international and cross-strait flights had been cancelled, Bloomberg reported. Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung all suspended work and classes. Stock settlements due on Friday move to the next business day.

The Taipei Times reported on 23 October that China Airlines and Tigerair Taiwan cancelled or rescheduled Okinawa flights. Taiwan Railway Corp cancelled all express trains on its western and eastern trunk lines for the day. In Kaohsiung, home to Taiwan’s biggest container port, the Gushan–Cijin ferries were suspended from midnight on Thursday. Taiwan High Speed Rail kept running.

For forwarders, Friday and Saturday are lost days in Taiwan. Air exports out of Taipei Taoyuan (TPE) should be planned for Sunday at the earliest. Freight that tranships through Kaohsiung or Taipei will feel it too.

What forwarders should do now

First, assume cut-offs at Shanghai and Ningbo will roll. In 2021 and again this August, East China terminals shut truck gates or gate-in services for the storm. Boxes not delivered by Friday are likely to miss this weekend’s vessels.

Second, check fuel plans with carriers on Asia–Europe and transpacific loops that call at Ningbo. A ship that could not bunker at Zhoushan may slow down to save fuel, which pushes back arrival dates in Europe and North America.

Third, warn Australian customers. Space on North Asia to Australia was already tight, and carriers there were already skipping calls.

Fourth, keep buffers on air. If Shanghai’s airports cancel heavily again, as they did for Dolphin, a one-to-two-day backlog at Pudong (PVG) is the pattern.

Our calls

First, Shanghai and Ningbo-Zhoushan container terminals will suspend at least part of their operations for 12 hours or more between Friday night 23 October and Sunday 25 October. That will happen even if Champi stays offshore. The Chanthu precedent of 2021, when terminals shut for a storm that missed them, is why we make this call despite the forecast turn toward Kyushu.

Second, at least one major carrier will announce a skipped Shanghai or Ningbo call in the week of 26 October.

Third, waiting times at Yangshan will not be back to normal before mid-November.

Sources