Northern Japanese ports plunged into chaos

Northern Japanese ports plunged into chaos    The historic and brutal natural disasters that afflicted Japan on Friday have sent the ports, shipping and logistics networks in the country's north island into chaos.
   The north island was particularly hard hit by the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck the region.
   MCC Transport, the intra-Asia subsidiary of Maersk Line, said in a statement Monday that there was no damage reported at the terminals at Japan main ports — Yokohama, Tokyo, Nagoya, Kobe, Osaka and Hakata.
   However, Sendai, a container port on the north island, was left in tatters, with officials saying it may take months for operations to resume there. Other northeastern Japanese ports in Hachinohe, Ishinomaki and Onahama were also severely damaged, Reuters reported.
   A host of lines reported their non-containerized vessels were damaged in the tsunami. Tokyo-based NYK Line, MOL and 'K' Line all said bulk vessels were hit. Oil shipments to Japan will be offloaded in India or other parts of Asia, Reuters reported. Flights into the country — including the key air freight hub of Narita — were disrupted Friday, but had resumed by Saturday in most of the country.
   “The short-term impact on economic activity could be greater than after the Kobe earthquake,” Jiyun Konomi, a Tokyo-based analyst with Nomura Securities, told Reuters. “Following the Kobe earthquake ' activity did not return to pre-earthquake levels within three months for freight transportation.”
   That parallels immediate concerns from BIMCO, which on Friday suggested container shipping activity to and from Japan could be hampered not just by shuttered container terminals and increased port congestion, but from lower productions from factories impacted by the disaster.