Typhoon Muifa heads for Asia's largest port of Shanghai

Fishing boats are moored together at the harbour in Keelung as Typhoon Muifa approached Taiwan on Sept 11, 2022. - AFP

SHANGHAI (Bloomberg): Asia’s largest container shipping hub may face another major storm as Typhoon Muifa bears down on Shanghai and nearby Ningbo.

The US Joint Typhoon Warning Center projects the typhoon’s path will hit the ports on China’s east coast on Wednesday (Sept 14). The storm follows close on the heels of Super Typhoon Hinnamnor, which brushed past the vital shipping hub last week, temporarily closing Shanghai’s major container port of Yangshan.

Typhoon Muifa is currently located east of Taiwan, headed northward with maximum wind gusts of 193 kilometers per hour, according to the US warning centre.

Last week’s storm scattered ships out of the mega-hub, and the queue of vessels is still above the 50-day average as the ports recover, according to Bloomberg data.

Despite the recent severe weather, Asia has had a relatively quiet storm season. Northwest Pacific typhoon activity this year is forecast to be 35% below normal, according to Tropical Storm Risk.