OOCL eliminated stops at the Tokyo and Nagoya ports on Friday, and other ocean carriers added cargo restrictions and changed ship routings around Japan as the country struggled with badly damaged infrastructure and ongoing radiation leaks from a crippled nuclear plant.
Japan's Coast Guard told ship operators to steer at least 50 miles away from the damaged Fukushima plant to avoid potential radiation contamination, and container line APL said it had ordered its ships to keep at least 200 nautical miles away from the area.
Carriers have eliminated services to the badly damaged or destroyed ports in the northeast around Sendai, but new notices Thursday and Friday signaled the impact on Japan's infrastructure was growing and reaching into the more industrial region in the south.
Japanese carrier MOL said it was "operating our vessels with utmost attention, following governmental standards and warnings to protect our vessels from the radioactive contamination.
"We are monitoring our vessels for 24 hours every day at the Safety Operating Supporting Center and send out an alert to every vessel which has a possibility to sail close to the area in advance," said MOL spokesman Kazuri Nakamura.
OOCL's decision to drop a Tokyo call for one ship and Tokyo and Nagoya calls for a second appeared to be the first significant services canceled at ports well outside the region, but other carriers added new restrictions on cargo operations.
The Journal of Commerce Online
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