Typhoon Muifa on course to hit east China on 14 September

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Typhoon Muifa is on course to hit China’s eastern coast late in the week and may affect operations at Shanghai and Ningbo ports.

At 00:00 GMT on 12 September, Muifa was located east of Taiwan with maximum wind gusts of around 190 kilometres per hour, data from the US Joint Typhoon Warning Centre (JTWC) showed.

Source: US JTWC

The typhoon is now moving northwest towards China’s eastern coast and expected to hit Shanghai and nearby Ningbo on 14 September.

Shanghai and Ningbo are home to the world’s largest container ports.

For the whole week, heavy rainfalls and rainstorms are likely to hit areas in Shanghai – which is also China’s financial hub – as well as portions of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shandong provinces, China’s Ministry of Emergency Management (MEM) said in a statement.

The government has activated a Level-IV emergency response in anticipation of Muifa, with the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters dispatching two working teams to east China’s Jiangsu and Zhejiang to assist and guide typhoon prevention and response work, state news agency Xinhua reported.

The level 4 response is the lowest in China’s four-tier emergency response system.

China’s markets are closed for the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday on Monday.