The Port of Virginia Authority will close the Portsmouth Marine Terminal from May 4 and push services to its other two terminals. That’ s a response to “a record number of blank sailings … due to the COVID-19 pandemic“. Virginia’s move is the most extreme of the ports so far. 

As shown in Panjiva’s research of April 15, the ports at Norfolk experienced a 7.9% year over year drop in traffic in March. Norfolk’s performance was only slightly below average and was significantly better than the 19.9% drop seen at Savannah and 17.3% slide seen at Charleston. That may suggest other ports may consider closures though some, such as South Carolina Ports, are cutting costs to deal with a reduction in operations. 

One alternative is to reutilize port capacity. Maersk’s APM Terminals is making in-terminal storage available to importers who’s downstream demand is precluding onward delivery, Container Magazine reports. That may act to the benefit of APM’s customers in LA, New York and Mobile among others.

Uncertainties over port capacity and storage may require freight forwarders and container-lines to dynamically reassess their routing choices as the spread of coronavirus turns to the reopening of economies. 

While Norfolk performed close to average in March it had seen a continual downturn in traffic since the start of Q4. Panjiva’s data shows that 31.1% of imports into the port of Norfolk in 2019 came from Chinese ports, with a 40.0% slide in shipments in March being the main driver of the downturn in traffic.

Shipments from the rest of Asia represented 29.7% of the total but increased by just 8.9%. Imports from European ports represented 32.1% of the total, and were unchanged in March after falling over the prior six months.

Chart segments containerized freight arriving at the port of Norfolk by port of lading region. Source: Panjiva

The immediate impact will be felt by services offered by Maersk and MSC which will be shifted out of the Portsmouth Marine Terminal. The two accounted for 25.5% of volumes handled through Norfolk in the 12 months to March 31, with volumes shipped having dropped by 19.1% in March. 

Following Maersk and MSC the next biggest liners were the THE Alliance partners Hapag-Lloyd and ONE who accounted for 33.1% of volumes in the past 12 months and cut volumes by 11.0% in March. Finally, Ocean Alliance’s CMA-CGM and COSCO Shipping represented 26.4% of the total and increased volumes shipped by 7.1% in March.

Chart segments containerized freight arriving at the port of Norfolk by container line. Source: Panjiva