Typhoon Maysak forces port closures as it makes landfall in Busan, South Korea

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Typhoon Maysak made landfall early on Thursday on the southern coast of Busan, South Korea, forcing the closure of ports in the region.

Busan is South Korea’s second-largest city and the world’s fifth-largest port.

Maysak was forecast to move northwest towards North Korea, packing winds up to 126 kilometres per hour, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration in its update at 13:00 Korea time (04:00 GMT).

Maysak is the strongest typhoon to hit South Korea this year and is the second storm to hit the country in a week after Typhoon Bavi.

As a precautionary measure, South Korean ports, and as well as ports as far afield as CJK (Changjiangkou) near Shanghai, China, have been shut till 4 September, industry sources said.

Maysak is the fourth storm to sweep past northeast Asia since this August, after Hagupit, Higos and Bavi.

Collectively, these typhoons have caused much havoc for the regional shipping scene, contributing to prolonged delays in ships’ turnaround timing, and disrupting operations at many northeast Asian ports.

Source: Korea Meteorological Service

“It may take one to two weeks more to clear the back-log and resume some form of normalcy to shipment schedules, assuming all is indeed calmer after Maysak,” a regional ship-broker said.

But this may not yet be the last the region see of inclement weather, as another storm, billed as Haishen, is developing in Maysak’s trail and could hit southwestern Japan, and Korea thereafter, by later this week, according to weather forecast reports.

Photo: NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview

Focus article by Nurluqman Suratman and Ai Teng Lim