Update: China opens up 10 ports for foreign crew change and implements circuit-breaker mechanism

Update 12/11/2020

Following on from our recent update, the ports concerned have been busy putting in place the necessary measures for conducting crew change operations in compliance with the requirements laid down by the authorities. The specific measures implemented by the ports of Qingdao, Tianjin, Dalian and Shanghai are now reported in the Correspondent’s Oasis Circular No.: 2013 which may be downloaded below.

For further information please get in touch with your Club contact who will be pleased to assist you. 

Original article 15/10/2020

Bimco reports that 7 Chinese governmental bodies including the Ministry of Transportation (MOT) released a notice last week announcing that the following 10 Chinese ports - Dalian, Tianjin, Qingdao, Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Haikou - will resume foreign crew change operations with certain Covid-19 requirements in place.

For details of these requirements, please refer to Bimco’s report. A quarantine circuit-breaker mechanism which works by suspending crew change operations for specified periods of time, such periods to be determined by the number of crew on board testing positive for Covid-19, has also been introduced. If the number of positive cases detected onboard is 5, the suspension period will be 15 days, if the number of positive cases is 10, the suspension period will be 30 days and if the number of positive cases exceeds 10, the suspension period will be indefinite until a fresh assessment has been conducted by the relevant authorities. There may be variations in the application of the requirements from port to port and Members are recommended to liaise closely with their port agents with regards to the same.