- The port of Fuzhou in eastern China is restricting vessels arriving from nine countries.
- These countries include the U.S. and Singapore.
- The measures are an effort to limit the spread of coronavirus by visiting ships and their crew.
- The quarantine will hit cargoes from Asian countries that take a week or less to sail to China.
- AMSA has intensified checks on incoming foreign vessels.
- Kuwait prohibited all its ports from receiving foreign ships arriving from or departing to some coronavirus-hit nations.
According to an article published in Bloomberg News, the port of Fuzhou in eastern China is restricting vessels arriving from nine countries.
Chinese ports off-limits
These countries include the U.S. and Singapore in efforts to limit the spread of coronavirus by visiting ships and their crew.
The mandatory quarantine will particularly hit cargoes from Asian countries that typically take a week or less to sail to China. It will also raise fears of similar steps by much bigger ports in the world’s second-biggest economy, notably the major cargo hubs of Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Tianjin that serve the country’s biggest coastal populations.
Australia intensifies checks on ships
Fuzhou’s measures follow similar steps taken by other countries as the virus spread. In February, Australia’s maritime safety body intensified checks on incoming foreign vessels while Kuwait prohibited all its ports from receiving foreign ships arriving from or departing to some coronavirus-hit nations, with the exception of vessels shipping hydrocarbons.
Japanese aware of the situation
A spokesperson from Japanese shipowner Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd said the company was aware of Chinese restrictions on vessels sailing from high-risk countries with large numbers of coronavirus infections, without confirming if Japan was one of those countries.
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Source: BloombergNews
