Hong Kong's Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), now a Cosco unit, announced that its offices in North and South China have remained closed following the announcement by the Chinese government to extend the Chinese National New Year holidays in order to contain the spread of the virus.

The shipping line said in a statement: "In view of the current situation of the coronavirus outbreak, we are taking appropriate steps across our global network in order to ensure the health and safety of our staff and the continuity of high levels of service to our customers."

The company said that most of the offices in North and South China will re-open on February 10, except for the offices in Jingmen and Wuhan in North China, which will remain closed until February 14. The office in Hong Kong has already re-opened.

The company said that "in order to ensure our smooth operations", OOCL staff in certain offices in the North and South China regions are available to serve our customers' requirements in this special period before normal office operations are resumed.

Furthermore, OOCL said: "In consideration of this global situation, extra exemption period for detention calculation from January 25 to February 9 is being offered to our customers but excludes other items such as storage and monitoring fees. This arrangement is applicable to inbound and outbound cargoes of Northern and Southern China."

Source:OOCL

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