Japan to face severe bottlenecks if ships stay away

Quake-crippled Japan could face severe supply chain bottlenecks if foreign shipping firms divert their vessels from Tokyo's port due to radiation fears, said the head of an A.P. Moller-Maersk subsidiary. Some merchant ships may be avoiding the port of Tokyo due to concerns of radiation exposure to crew members from the Fukushima nuclear plant, located 250 km (150 miles) north of the capital.
Should this be the start of a trend in the shipping industry, Japan could face major delays and seaborne congestion at ports, hindering recovery efforts in the wake of the March 11 earthquake. "A few German shipping lines have decided not to go to these ports," Tim Wickmann, chief executive of MCC Transport, at the company's headquarters in Singapore, told Reuters. "The last thing Japan needs right now is for people to abandon them."
Wickmann declined to specify which German companies have halted shipments to Tokyo, the country's fourth largest port. Lloyd's List reported on Thursday Claus-Peter Offen, one of Germany's largest shipowners, had suspended calls for his company's entire fleet of more than 110 vessels to Tokyo and Yokohama because of radiation fears.
"As long as the authorities consider the port safe, we want to go. But of course if you have a crew that refuses to sail the ship, what can you do?," asked Wickmann. Tokyo Electric Power said on Thursday the overall situation was stabilising at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Engineers are trying to stabilise the six-reactor plant nearly two weeks after the earthquake and tsunami battered it and devastated north-east Japan, leaving nearly 26,000 people dead or missing. MCC Transport, a subsidiary of Maersk focused on the intra-Asia container trade, has continued normal operations of its four shipping lines to Japan.
Container shipments to eastern Japan could come to a virtual standstill if maritime firms decide Tokyo was too dangerous. "I think that shippers around Asia in such case will stop their cargoes to eastern Japan. They will hold the cargo at various ports - Korea, Taiwan or other nearby ports," he said.