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China's Personal Information Protection Law, which came into
effect on Nov. 1, has added to a raft of new rules designed to
increase government control over how domestic and foreign
organisations collect and export China's data.
Although there are no specific guidelines on shipping data in
the regulations some domestic providers in China have stopped
giving information to foreign companies as a direct consequence
of the new rules, the sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
The data is relied upon to provide information on cargo volumes
and helps optimise logistics by predicting congestion so
companies can make key decisions on shipping routes.
MarineTraffic, a top global provider of ship tracking and
maritime intelligence, is among those foreign companies now
experiencing gaps in vital shipping location data from China,
where much of the world's supply of manufactured goods and some
industrial commodities come from.
"If this continues, there will be a big impact in terms of
global visibility especially as we come into the busy Christmas
period with supply chains already facing huge problems all over
the world," said Anastassis Touros, AIS network team leader at
MarineTraffic.
"All of a sudden we do not know when ships are leaving and from
where, and we also don't have the full picture on port
congestion which AIS offers us."
The so-called Automatic Identification System (AIS) provides the
locational positions on ships. It is used by other vessels,
ports, and many other organisations from banks and traders to
search and rescue operations.
From Oct. 28 to Nov. 15 the level of terrestrial shipping data
across all Chinese waters was estimated to have dropped 90%
according to market intelligence and valuations provider
VesselsValue.
"With China being a major importer of coal and iron ore and one
of the main container exporters globally, this decline in
positional data could cause significant challenges concerning
ocean supply chain visibility," head trade analyst Charlotte
Cook said.
Two other sources put the drop in terrestrial AIS data at up to
45% in recent days.
An official with the Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration
told Reuters that AIS rules were set by the department's
headquarters in Beijing. Calls to the Maritime Safety
Administration’s Beijing office were not answered.
Other Chinese officials did not immediately respond to requests
for comment.
A spokesperson with U.N. agency the International Maritime
Organization, which adopted global AIS regulations, had no
comment when contacted.
The AIS information is taken from continuous transmissions and
although it can be collated using satellite data, for heavily
congested areas or places where frequent updates are needed,
terrestrial data is required.
It was unclear how AIS users will be able to keep tabs on
shipping movements if the data gaps continue.
The lack of tracking capability comes at a time when COVID-19
has already exposed the fragility of global supply chains used
for everything from food to fashion.
The surge in demand for goods and shortage of containers has
created port disruptions https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/containergeddon-supply-crisis-drives-walmart-rivals-hire-their-own-ships-2021-10-07
around the world, which makes the AIS data even more important
to determine schedule times for shipments from key suppliers in
China.
Mainland China is home to six of the world's ten largest
container ports.
An employee at Elane Inc, a Beijing-based company that owns an
AIS data platform with around 2.5 million users, told Reuters
that “all dealings with foreign entities were recently halted".
"The changes happened last month, we only supply data to
domestic users now,” said the employee, who asked not to be
identified.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul in London and Eduardo Baptista in
Hong Kong;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
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