News / Cambodia-Thailand spat sees land border closed, but ports remain open

Cambodia and Thailand’s ocean-based trading links appear to have remained open, despite a deteriorating political situation that saw the closure of the land border this week.

In the past 24 hours, HMM and Kuehne + Nagel issued customer advisories warning shippers that “border trade remains suspended until further notice”, noting that shipments using this routing could face significant delays and additional costs.

Vespucci Maritime CEO Lars Jensen said: “As if the world did not already have sufficient conflict, border tensions are now flaring between Thailand and Cambodia.”

HMM advised customers against using the trade route to Cambodia via Thailand, adding: “Clearly shippers with any other carrier will face the same problem if planning to move cargo over land.”

But forwarders who spoke to The Loadstar said they were not aware of any issues involving container trades between the two countries’ ports, and had received no signal to expect major disruption to wider regional trades as a consequence of the border dispute.

And, HMM aside, none of the other major carriers operating between the two countries has yet to issue any advisories indicating delays or plans to skip port calls – 11 services from deepsea carriers alone still operating.

Services calling at Cambodia’s Sihanoukville and Thailand’s Bangkok and/or Laem Chabang ports include a joint-service from Cosco, OOCL, and RCL, another joint service from HMM and ONE, as well as two services from Evergreen and Maersk, and three from SITC.

One source told The Loadstar that while they would avoid the hinterlands and cross-border trades, they saw no reason to expect the government in Bangkok to prevent container calls at its gateways from vessels that had called in Cambodia, nor the reverse from Phnom Penh.

While Drewry’s head of ports and specialised shipping research, Ferenc Pasztor, said he was viewing the situation as akin to the India-Pakistan stand-off last month, and that Drewry was not planning to revise any of its forecasts.

“If it is like what happened between India and Pakistan, you may see some short-term effects, but we did not see any huge impact from that conflict, and based on what we’re currently seeing between Cambodia and Thailand, we’re not concerned,” Dr Pasztor told The Loadstar.

He added that while significant, the trade flows between the countries were not vast, and suggested that any sort of disruption could be absorbed.

According to local media reports, however, there has been a significant impact on cross-border trade, and while contingencies have been put into place, prices have reportedly trebled, forcing some shipments to be cancelled or subject to major delays.

Voratat Tantimongkolsuk, president of the Thai-Cambodian Business Council, told one media outlet that with land access severed, there were two options open, one the land route via Laos, the other the maritime route.

However, he noted that Thailand’s Khlong Yai Port, one of the more popular options, was already booked-out until the middle of next month, indicating that its small size meant it was not sufficiently equipped to meet current demand, let alone more.