Terminals in Hong Kong and southern China have stopped handling containers for today (5 September) as Super Typhoon Yagi approaches.

Hong Kong Observatory has issued the No. 8 signal today and this is expected to be in place until 6 September. The observatory has determined Yagi to be a mature storm. Consequently, schools have been ordered to shut and outdoor activities are discouraged. Several domestic ferry services have also been suspended.

Yagi, the Japanese word for goat and Capricorn, is set to move 300km (186 miles) to the southwest of Hong Kong tonight and tomorrow morning.

The observatory said: “Gales associated with Yagi are set to edge closer to the Pearl River Estuary later today. Local winds will strengthen further and weather will deteriorate.”

Yantian International Container Terminal said in a WeChat notification that handling of empty containers stopped at 3am local time today, although loaded containers will still be accepted.

Hong Kong Container Terminals 4, 6, and 7, as well as COSCO-HIT Terminal and Asia Container Terminals, stopped all container deliveries at 12:00 noon local time today.

China's logistics sector reported growth in August this year, driven by rising logistics demand. This was revealed by data released by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing on Monday.

According to its data, an index tracking business activity in China's logistics market stood at 51.5 percent in August, up 0.5 pct from a month earlier. Meanwhile, the warehousing index stood at 50.2 percent, up 3.7 p.p. from July.

According to He Hui, chief economist of the aforementioned federation, due to the gradual implementation of various policies to boost investment and stabilize economic growth, the integration of activities in both upstream and downstream of the country's manufacturing and supply chain is accelerating, which has led to an increase in the indicators of total business volume.

In August this year, the total business volume sub-index rose 0.5 pp to 51.5 percent, while the new orders sub-index rose 0.6 pp to 51.8 percent. Notably, the business expectations subindex rose to 56.3 percent.

Movement of export-import cargo-laden trucks and other vehicles through the Dhaka-Chittagong highway was disrupted severely as a devastating flood in Bangladesh has inundated roads, highways, homes, and farmlands since late last week.

Until now 11 districts in Bangladesh are now underwater where 1.23 million families have been affected totalling 5.7 million people while at least 23 have been killed. The flood situation further worsened on Monday amid huge rainfall.

As the country’s prime trade lifeline, Dhaka-Chittagong highways swamped and stayed underwater in many places, the trucks and other vehicles carrying in and outbound cargoes can move slowly and thus stay idle in traffic jams hours after hours. In some places, traffic congestions of 30 to 40 kilometres have been created.

Port sector officials say delivery of boxes from Chittagong port and inland container depots has fallen drastically while the depots are getting a significantly lesser number of export goods laden trucks during the last couple of days.

Ruhul Amin Sikder (Biplob), secretary general, of Bangladesh Inland Container Depot Association said on Monday the 19 depots received only 1,124 export goods laden trucks from Dhaka and elsewhere against receiving some 3,500 trucks in a normal day.

Also on the day only 393 TEUs of import goods laden containers have been delivered from the depots as the importers show reluctance to take delivery of goods amid floods. The depots now house 8,290 TEUs of export goods laden boxes, 8,643 TEUs of import goods laden trucks and 49,924 TEUs of empty containers.

COSCO SHIPPING Lines officially secured the TISAX (Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange) certification, indicating that the company meets European Union (EU) automotive industry standards for information security risk control.

The TISAX certification is an evaluation system for information security risk control in the automotive industry. It has unified inspection item content and higher requirements than the internationally accepted ISO27000, making the evaluation results highly comparable.

COSCO SHIPPING Lines said the TISAX certification will help the company further enhance its customer service capabilities in the automotive industry.

COSCO SHIPPING Lines noted it will continue to improve its information security risk control capabilities and strive to provide customers with a better and safer service experience.

The container that exploded on Yang Ming's ship YM Mobility on 9 August was reportedly booked by the Taiwanese operator’s fellow THE Alliance member HMM.

The incident, which occurred around 1.40 pm local time that day, originated from a reefer that was used to carry dry goods, according to Yang Ming.

The container has been speculated to have been carrying lithium-ion batteries or organic peroxides, which are flammable.

An HMM spokesperson told Container News: “We’re waiting for an official announcement from the authorities in Ningbo port, who are investigating the cause and extent of the damage.”