Japanese ports handling were as much as 7 percent of the country's industrial output sustained major damage, disrupting global supply chains and causing billions of dollars in losses.
The box shipping industry was seen as the most strongly affected as the destroyed ports handled containerized cargo for Hitachi Ltd. , Daikin Industries , and dozens of other companies.
Tokyo and all ports south of Japan's capital were operating normally after briefly shutting down operations following Friday's disaster, while the rest of the country's ports were being assessed for damage.
The brief closure of all of Japan's ports was expected to cost the country more than $3.4 billion in lost seaborne trade, according to shipping trade publication Lloyd's List Intelligence. Maritime trade in the world's No. 3 economy totalled $1.5 trillion last year.
The northeast coast ports of Hachinohe, Sendai, Ishinomaki and Onahama were so severely damaged that they were not expected to return to operation for months, if not years. Hachinohe supplies fuel products to the local fishing fleet and US military installations in Japan and South Korea, while Sendai handles a range of goods from rubber products to paper and machinery.
Japan's top crude oil and LNG port Chiba and the country's ninth-largest container port Kashima were also affected, but to a lesser extent.
Other damaged ports included Hitachinaka, Hitachi, Soma, Shiogama, Kesennuma, Ofunato, Kamashi and Miyako. The ports handle products ranging from sugar and non-ferrous metals to cars and wood products.
Japan's Sendai Gas said it was unable to reach the tsunami-hit Shinminato liquefied natural gas terminal near the port of Sendai in the country's northeast, but the terminal appeared undamaged from a distance. All the remaining LNG terminals in Japan were in operation. |
