The impact of former Hurricane Harvey continues to disrupt port operations in Texas, with Port Houston confirming it will remain closed on 8/30. This may be extended through 9/05 at Corpus Christi, raising the prospect of broader delays, AJOT reports. That would bring the delay to nine calendar days and five working days. In turn it could result in delays to over 30,000 TEU of containerized freight. The length of the event would also be similar to super-storm Sandy in 2012, which caused port closures for as much as eight days. It also puts it ahead of the two days of closures from Hurricane Matthew in October 2016, as outlined in Panjiva research of October 7.

Sandy was more significant – at least so far – in that it had a broader area of disruption across the eastern-seaboard. Panjiva data shows it disrupted 9% of traffic for the entire month across the region, with most deliveries recovered in the following month. Timing matters for Harvey too – while it is in the peak shipping season, closures are focussed across two weekends and (potentially) the Labor Day holiday.

Chart shows shipments coming into U.S. northeastern seaboard ports, segmented by month. Source: Panjiva

Harvey’s impact may not be limited to oil and containerized freight. Predictions from NOAA indicate there may be a second landfall around the Texas-Louisiana border. That may result in closures for Cheniere’s Sabine Pass liquefied natural gas facility. Panjiva data shows exports in the second quarter increased 5.5x in volume terms on a year earlier, which meant shipments increased 12.9% in the second quarter vs. the first. The impact should, however, be minimal given the disruption will be caused by rain rather than wind, though restrictions to gas supplies to the terminal can’t be ruled out.

Chart segments U.S. exports of LNG by destination country. Right hand axis shows total in millions of cubic meters.   Source: Panjiva