Recently, due to the impact of the China-US tariff dispute, the anchorage time for Chinese port commodity ships at foreign trade destinations has increased. According to data from the ship tracking platform Kpler for the week ending on October 19, vessels arriving at anchorages needed an average waiting time of 2.66 days, a 17% increase from the previous week, marking the longest waiting time recorded this year.

As the world's largest importer of commodities, congestion issues at Chinese ports could affect the global supply chain, especially for liquid goods like crude oil and bulk commodities like iron ore. Due to disagreements between China and the United States in the shipping sector, China is imposing high port fees on vessels known to have connections with the U.S., making maritime friction part of the trade dispute between the two countries.

Furthermore, the United States has imposed sanctions on Rizhao, a major oil import terminal operator in eastern China, aiming to prevent Iran from shipping crude oil to China. As tanker owners need to comply with new directives, waiting times at some oil hubs have increased. Last week, vessels at Dongjiakou had an average waiting time of 2.79 days, the second highest period in Kpler data. Meanwhile, the waiting time in Yantai was 2.7 days, higher than the previous week's approximately 1.8 days.

Matt Wright, a freight analyst at Kpler, stated, "Shipowners feel they can accept the waiting." "There is still a lot of uncertainty about which shipowners need to pay fees." As more information becomes available, Kpler's data may be revised and updated.