SOUTH-EAST ASIA (Bloomberg): Taiwan shut its US$5 trillion stock market, schools and offices on Friday as Typhoon Champi barreled toward the island, bringing heavy rain and damaging winds that disrupted flights.
Champi was packing top sustained winds of 155 kilometers (96 miles) an hour, equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane, according to the island’s weather agency, after weakening over the past 24 hours from super typhoon strength. The storm was around 260 kilometers southeast of Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport as of 2:30 p.m. Friday local time, the bureau added.
Most of Taiwan’s cities and counties shut offices and schools for safety on Friday, while the storm had already killed one person and injured 171, according to government statements. More than 950 international and domestic flights were canceled on Friday, along with some train services.
Taiwan’s stock exchange, the fifth-largest globally, will also be closed Monday for a holiday, giving the island an additional trading gap compared with other markets in the region. The tech-heavy exchange, along with those in South Korea and Japan, has sold off recently as investors track earnings from global tech giants.
Cooler ocean waters and increasing wind shear will steadily shave some intensity from Champi, but it remains a very large cyclone with an expansive wind field, according to the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center. The storm is forecast to pass just east of Taipei early Saturday before curving northeast along mainland China’s east coast on its way toward Japan’s Kyushu.
"The risks that matter now are rain and the size of the wind field,” said James Caron, director of meteorological operations for North America and Asia at Atmospheric G2. "The 185-miles-per-hour peak is behind us.”
Champi achieved super typhoon strength earlier in the week, making it the 10th to reach that level in the northwest Pacific Ocean this season. That’s double the long-term average and just shy of a record 13 during 2015’s El Niño, according to the Hong Kong Observatory. Storms tend to form farther east during the climate phenomenon, giving them more time to accumulate energy over warm, open waters as they churn toward land.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported, Taiwan forecasters said the storm's radius was around 320 km (200 miles), large enough to cover most of Taiwan, and weather experts said its impact could last nearly two days.
Taiwan's financial markets also closed on Friday, while only the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands, which sit next to the Chinese coast, opened schools and offices as normal.
The transport ministry said all 262 domestic flights were cancelled, along with 717 international ones. The north-south high-speed rail service was operating as usual.
In the capital Taipei there were squally showers, but public transport including the subway was working, albeit with reduced service.
Taiwan is generally very well prepared for typhoons, which keeps casualties low. Although more common in summer, the storms can strike in autumn too.
The typhoon is forecast to first pass over Japan's westernmost inhabited island, Yonaguni, in Okinawa Prefecture.
(Reporting by Yimou Lee in Yilan, and Angie Teo and Fabian Hamacher in Keelung, Taiwan; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; Editing by Stephen Coates and Philippa Fletcher)
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