The month of July presents a confluence of operational pressures: the peak flood season, a heightened frequency of typhoons, and peak summer demand. These factors collectively place significant strain on both coal supply assurance and maritime work safety. China Shenhua’s Shipping Company has adopted a coordinated approach to safety management and energy supply assurance, implementing a phased response encompassing pre-typhoon warnings, defensive measures during transit, and post-typhoon operational resumption. This strategy has effectively safeguarded vessel and crew safety while ensuring the continuity of coal transport operations.
Proactive early warnings and assessments enabled power plants to secure sufficient coal reserves before the typhoon struck. The company established a closed-loop typhoon warning response mechanism, with dedicated personnel maintaining round-the-clock surveillance of meteorological and maritime warning bulletins. Typhoon trajectories, impact intensities, and landfall zones are predicted with a lead time of 72 hours. A targeted risk assessment was conducted for coal stock levels at power plants likely to be affected by the typhoon. Capitalizing on a favorable operational opportunity, the company completed the rush unloading of two vessels Shenhua 533 and Shenhua 532 prior to the activation of maritime typhoon control measures. This operation added 75,000 tonnes of coal to power plant reserves, proactively alleviating the risk of coal shortages during the peak summer demand.
Closed-loop controls were applied throughout the process, ensuring typhoon shelter measures were fully implemented across the entire fleet. During the typhoon’s passage, the company’s senior leadership assumed on-site command, maintaining a 24-hour executive duty roster, with personnel from production dispatch, marine engineering, and vessel crews remaining fully deployed. A differentiated sheltering strategy was adopted under a “one vessel, one plan” framework: 78 ocean-going vessels and 89 inland waterway vessels were directed to seek shelter at designated locations; two vessels undergoing repair at shipyards were handled in coordination with local authorities, with all crew members evacuated to shore to ensure personnel safety; mooring reinforcement measures were implemented for 8 inland waterway vessels in strict compliance with regulatory requirements. This approach established a comprehensive typhoon defense network covering ocean-going fleets, coastal shipping, inland waterways, and shipyard repair facilities.
A swift, multi-party response cleared bottlenecks and reopened the waterway coal corridor as soon as the storm passed. Immediately following the abatement of the typhoon’s impact, the company initiated coordinated efforts with local governments, maritime authorities, port operators, and shipping agents to secure anchorage and berthing resources in advance, facilitating the orderly resumption of operations for sheltered vessels in staged batches. To mitigate congestion and berth shortages arising from the concentrated movement of inbound river vessels, the company proactively coordinated with the Trading Group and terminal stockyards to divert coal storage, leveraging long-term contract shipping capacity to stagger outbound logistics. Inbound river vessels were dispatched in batches to anchorage areas to await navigation clearance, while vessel turnaround efficiency was concurrently enhanced to ensure a stable coal supply to power plants along the Yangtze River and inland waterway systems.
