Confidence audit
Every event record states its own confidence level and the reason for it, written at the time it was approved. This page lists all 53 in one place, lowest confidence first, so a weak record is never only findable by opening it. Data through 2026-09-13 (13 September 2026).
Low1
Medium29
High23
Total53
All records
| Confidence | Event | Started | Stated reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Low | Russia halts commercial shipping through the Kerch Strait | 2026-07-10 | Only two press reports were retrievable and both are Ukrainian outlets covering a war in which both sides make claims; the halt notice itself and any Russian official statement could not be retrieved. The closure is corroborated by IMF PortWatch transit counts, but the number of vessels struck differs between reports and the current status rests on the data alone. |
| Medium | Typhoon Saudel closes Ningbo and Shanghai container terminals | 2026-08-26 | Closure and reopening times come from a carrier advisory and forwarder notices that agree with each other and with our port call series, but no statement from a port authority was retrieved. |
| Medium | Ver.di warning strikes halt container handling at German seaports | 2026-08-17 | Dates and scope are consistent across three trade outlets that quote Eurogate and HHLA advisories, but no ver.di or ZDS statement could be retrieved directly, and the result of the consultation ending 2026-09-14 was not found, so the status is unresolved. |
| Medium | Durban Gateway Terminal backlog follows terminal operating system cutover | 2026-08-15 | The cutover date and the terminal's own notice are relayed by an industry association, and the throughput and waiting figures come from trade press without a direct terminal statement; the effect in port call counts is small and the backlog is still open. |
| Medium | Earthquake suspends container terminals at Colombia's Buenaventura port | 2026-08-10 | Four consistent press and carrier sources, but no Colombian official or port authority statement was retrieved, the last source is dated 2026-08-14, and the recovery status since then is unknown. |
| Medium | Typhoon Dolphin halts container terminals at Ningbo and Shanghai | 2026-08-07 | Dates rest on freight forwarder and carrier advisories that agree with each other and with our port call series, but no statement from Ningbo-Zhoushan Port or Shanghai International Port Group was retrieved. The stranded capacity figure is a third-party estimate quoted by one source. |
| Medium | Record low water at Kaub restricts Rhine barge shipping | 2026-08-01 | The record low and the mid-August stoppage rest on one Bloomberg report (syndicated) and a carrier notice; no WSV publication was retrieved and a second archived news source on the low point and later recovery could not be obtained. The start date is approximate and the end is open. |
| Medium | Houthi embargo on Saudi shipping and attacks at Bab el-Mandeb | 2026-07-20 | Two outlets agree on the embargo and the warnings, but no official maritime authority notice could be retrieved, so all narrative sources are press. The attack on the Tihamah rests on statements by the Yemeni government. Casualties are left out because no official source was read. The transit decline is measured in PortWatch but its cause is not established by the data. |
| Medium | Drone attacks halt oil loadings at Ust-Luga and Primorsk | 2026-03-25 | Two Bloomberg pieces and a Reuters piece agree on the dates but all are press and no Russian official statement was read. Primorsk has no PortWatch series, and Ust-Luga port calls show no clear fall, so the stoppage is not measured in our data. |
| Medium | Strait of Hormuz closed to most shipping during the Iran war | 2026-03-01 | Dates and figures rest on the International Maritime Organization and on consistent press reporting, but each press source was read as a single report, the blockade start is known to the month only, and attribution of individual ship attacks is not settled in the sources used. |
| Medium | Workers strike at Chittagong port over New Mooring Container Terminal lease | 2026-01-31 | Dates are consistent across Bangladeshi and trade press, but no official statement from Chattogram Port Authority or the government was retrieved, and the strike was suspended rather than settled, so the end date marks the resumption of work. |
| Medium | Iberian power blackout halts container terminals at Spanish ports | 2025-04-28 | The blackout, its restoration times and its cause are documented by the grid operator, the Spanish government and ENTSO-E, but the port level detail rests on trade and regional press reporting of what the port authorities said, rather than on port authority statements still online. |
| Medium | Explosion and fire at Shahid Rajaee Port near Bandar Abbas | 2025-04-26 | The date of the explosion and the restart of customs and cargo handling are reported consistently by Iranian state media and two international outlets, but official Iranian figures for the human toll were revised more than once and no port authority page could be retrieved directly. |
| Medium | Container ships wait for berths at the Port of Singapore | 2024-05-01 | The waiting times, the causes and the mitigation steps come from the port authority and the terminal operator, but neither gives a start or end date, so the start is dated to May 2024 from the first official statement and the end to July 2024, when the operator reported waiting back at two days or less. |
| Medium | Attacks on shipping in the Red Sea divert traffic around Africa | 2023-11-19 | The start date and the attribution of the seizure are confirmed by a United Kingdom government statement and the diversions by Maersk's own advisories, but the status in September 2026 rests on press reporting rather than a dated official announcement. |
| Medium | Russia ends Black Sea Grain Initiative participation and strikes Ukrainian ports | 2023-07-17 | The start date and the strikes on port facilities are documented by United Nations sources, while the end date rests on the first departure through Ukraine's own corridor as announced by Ukrainian authorities and reported by Ukrainska Pravda. |
| Medium | Cyclone Biparjoy suspends operations at Gujarat ports | 2023-06-12 | The suspension date and Kandla and Pipavav's 2023-06-17 resumption rest on a Reuters wire report and trade press, consistent with each other, but no dated statement from Deendayal Port Authority or Adani Ports could be retrieved directly, and no source confirms exactly when the first vessel berthed at Mundra, only that it was due to restart that evening. |
| Medium | Cargo truckers strike cuts container movement at South Korean ports | 2022-11-24 | The start date and the union's demands come from the International Transport Workers' Federation, the federation of the striking union. The return to work orders, the port throughput figures and the closing vote rest on Korean press reporting of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport data, consistent across two outlets, rather than on a ministry release we could retrieve. |
| Medium | Live fire exercise zones around Taiwan divert shipping | 2022-08-04 | The announcement of the exercises and their completion come from the theater command as carried by the state news agency, and the zone window and the rerouting from one trade press report; Taiwan's own notice to mariners is no longer online, so no source here is an official one. |
| Medium | Warning strikes stop work at German North Sea ports | 2022-06-09 | The settlement and the union's position come from ver.di's own statement, but the strike dates and the ports covered rest on trade press reporting, since the employers' association and port statements from 2022 are no longer online. |
| Medium | Shanghai COVID-19 lockdown restricts trucking to the port | 2022-03-28 | The lockdown dates and the statement that the port kept working are supported by a carrier advisory and by reporting of the city government's own announcement, but we could not retrieve a city or port authority page stating the 2022-03-28 start directly. The window does not overlap Lunar New Year or China's National Day holiday exclusions, though it runs for more than 28 days, so the year ago comparison applies. |
| Medium | Ukraine's Black Sea ports close to commercial shipping after the invasion | 2022-02-24 | The resumption dates and the corridor movements are confirmed by United Nations sources, while the start of the closure rests on trade press reporting from 2022-02-24 and 2022-02-25 rather than a Ukrainian government document. |
| Medium | Hurricane Ida closes New Orleans and the Lower Mississippi River | 2021-08-28 | The closure and the reopening are documented by the Coast Guard, but the Coast Guard bulletin and the port release give different days for the river reopening, so the end date follows the bulletin that describes the removal of the obstruction. |
| Medium | Cyberattack on Transnet disrupts South African container terminals | 2021-07-22 | The dates of the attack, the force majeure and its uplift are consistent across four outlets quoting Transnet Port Terminals, but Transnet's own statements from 2021 are no longer available on its site and could not be cited directly. |
| Medium | Container ship queue off Los Angeles and Long Beach | 2020-10-01 | The queueing process and its effective date come from the Marine Exchange of Southern California's own document, but the ship counts, the peak and the end of the backup rest on trade reporting of exchange figures rather than an archived primary statement. |
| Medium | Explosion at the Port of Beirut halts port operations | 2020-08-04 | The date of the explosion and the port's reduced capacity are confirmed by a United Nations situation report, while the 2020-08-10 container terminal restart rests on carrier statements reported by two outlets rather than on a port authority statement. |
| Medium | Carriers withdraw sailings on Asia to Europe and transpacific services | 2020-04-01 | The cancelled services and weeks come from Maersk's own customer advisories, but the wider scale of the withdrawals across carriers and alliances rests on trade press reporting, and no single start or end date was announced. |
| Medium | Vehicle carrier Golden Ray capsizes and blocks the Brunswick channel | 2019-09-08 | The casualty, the rescue and the cause are documented by the Coast Guard and the safety board, but the dates on which traffic resumed rest on press reporting of unified command decisions rather than an archived official notice. |
| Medium | NotPetya malware halts Maersk and APM Terminals port operations | 2017-06-27 | The start date and the affected terminals are reported consistently by two trade outlets and by Wired, and the attribution is official, but no statement by Maersk about its own operations could be retrieved and the end of the disruption is given only as more than a week. |
| Medium | Hanjin Shipping receivership leaves container ships outside ports | 2016-08-31 | The receivership filing and the bankruptcy declaration are confirmed by consistent trade and general press reporting and by a later United States Government Accountability Office report, but no court document or company statement could be retrieved directly. |
| High | Panama Canal cuts Neopanamax draft and daily transit slots | 2026-07-01 | Four dated canal authority notices agree on the draft and slot steps. The exact start is uncertain: press put the first cut at 2026-07-01 while the advisory read gives 2026-07-24 for its first step, so the start is recorded to the month. PortWatch transit counts fell only about 10 percent, so the measured effect is small. |
| High | United States and China levy port fees on each other's vessels | 2025-10-14 | The start date, the suspension date and the hours of effect come from the United States Trade Representative, the Federal Register and the announcement of China's Ministry of Transport. |
| High | Lashing workers strike halts container handling at the Port of Rotterdam | 2025-10-08 | The start is confirmed by Maersk's customer advisory, and the court ordered return to work and settlement dates by the ITF, the federation of the striking union, with consistent reporting in two trade outlets. |
| High | Lockout of longshore workers closes Port of Montreal terminals | 2024-11-10 | The lockout, the labour board order and the resumption time come from the employers' association's own dated updates and the union's statement, with consistent reporting by CBC News and a trade outlet. |
| High | Lockout of ship and dock foremen stops British Columbia ports | 2024-11-04 | The lockout start and the resumption of operations are set out in the employers' association's own bargaining updates, and the ministerial direction and labour board order are reported by CBC News and a trade outlet. |
| High | Dockworkers strike halts US East and Gulf Coast container ports | 2024-10-01 | The start, the settlement and the resumption times are set out by the Georgia Ports Authority, which quotes the joint statement of the union and the employers' alliance, with consistent reporting in two trade outlets. |
| High | Ship strikes Key Bridge and closes the Baltimore ship channel | 2024-03-26 | The date and cause come from the National Transportation Safety Board investigation, and the channel milestones from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Unified Command that carried out the work. |
| High | DP World Australia disconnects its network after a cyber incident | 2023-11-10 | The detection date, the disconnection, the resumption on 2023-11-13 and the backlog figure come from DP World Australia's own statement, with consistent reporting by ABC News and CNN. |
| High | Vessel congestion at the Port of Durban container terminals | 2023-10-01 | The causes, the scale of the backlog and the recovery plan come from a dated Transnet media statement, with consistent reporting of vessel counts and waiting times in three outlets. |
| High | Typhoon Saola halts port work in Hong Kong and Shenzhen | 2023-08-31 | The signal history and the storm's strength come from the Hong Kong government. The Shenzhen terminal stop and restart times rest on Chinese business press reporting of the terminal operators' own notices. The window does not overlap a calendar exclusion, although China's National Day holiday begins four weeks later. |
| High | Ransomware stops container handling at the Port of Nagoya | 2023-07-04 | The timeline, the cause and the restart times come from the incident report published by the Nagoya Harbor Transportation Association, with consistent reporting by two technology outlets. |
| High | Longshore strike stops cargo at British Columbia ports | 2023-07-01 | The strike dates, the mediated settlement and the ratification are documented by the employers' association and the union, with the labour board ruling and the withdrawal of the second strike notice reported by CBC News. |
| High | Drought cuts draft and daily transits at the Panama Canal | 2023-03-01 | Every draft figure, transit limit and date comes from dated Panama Canal Authority advisories to shipping and the authority's own statements. |
| High | EU ban on seaborne Russian crude and the G7 price cap take effect | 2022-12-05 | The dates, the scope of the prohibitions and the cap levels come from Council press releases and European Commission guidance. |
| High | Second eight day dockworkers strike at the Port of Felixstowe | 2022-09-27 | Strike dates, ballot figures and the settlement come from Unite, the union that called the action, and from a Maersk customer advisory, with trade press reporting of the settlement. |
| High | Dockworkers strike for eight days at the Port of Felixstowe | 2022-08-21 | The strike dates, the number of workers and the pay positions come from Unite, the union that called the action, and from a Maersk customer advisory, with consistent trade press reporting at the start and at the settlement. |
| High | Meishan container terminal at Ningbo-Zhoushan closed for two weeks | 2021-08-11 | The closure and reopening dates come from a carrier advisory updated through the closure and are consistent across two trade outlets. The window does not overlap Lunar New Year or China's National Day holiday exclusions. |
| High | COVID-19 controls cut container handling at Yantian in Shenzhen | 2021-05-25 | The restriction dates come from the terminal operator's own notice and from a carrier advisory updated through the episode, with consistent trade press reporting. The window does not overlap Lunar New Year or China's National Day holiday exclusions. |
| High | Container ship X-Press Pearl burns and sinks off Colombo | 2021-05-20 | The firefighting timeline and the state of the vessel are confirmed by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, with consistent reporting of the start of the fire and the sinking in two trade outlets. |
| High | Container ship Ever Given grounds and blocks the Suez Canal | 2021-03-23 | The suspension of navigation and the refloating date come from Suez Canal Authority notices, and the grounding time, position and absence of casualties from the Panama Maritime Authority investigation report. |
| High | France closes its border to freight from the United Kingdom | 2020-12-20 | The prohibition and its end date are set out in the French decree, and the reopening protocol and testing requirement in a Department for Transport statement, with consistent reporting by three established outlets. |
| High | Oilseed workers strike halts grain exports at Rosario area ports | 2020-12-09 | The start, the continuation and the settlement are documented in statements by the unions that called the strike, with the lifting of the action and the number of ships waiting reported by Infobae. |
| High | Iran seizes the tanker Stena Impero in the Strait of Hormuz | 2019-07-19 | The seizure, its location and the shipping security level come from United Kingdom government statements, and the release date from the operator's own statements and consistent reporting. |
Confidence is set by the editor who approved the record and is not recomputed. Corrections log. All events.