Super typhoon Yagi wreaks havoc in Asia, with global supply chain affects likely to follow

The News

Key manufacturing and shipping hubs in China and Vietnam are grappling with widespread disruptions and closures in the wake of super typhoon Yagi, one of most formidable storms to ever hit the region.

The super typhoon made landfall on the Chinese island of Hainan Thursday. Moving westward, Yagi has forced a million people to evacuate in southern China and claimed more than a dozen lives in Vietnam, as well as damaging the industrial region of Haiphong, which hosts several international companies’ factories, including LG Electronics.

Meanwhile, businesses, public services, and transportation networks closed in the Chinese province of Guangzhou and Hong Kong, creating a mounting backlog in manufacturing and shipping that some companies expect will take weeks to resolve, and drive up costs.

China had already seen an earlier and more intense flood season in 2024, especially in its manufacturing hubs in Guangzhou, with analysts directly citing climate change as a factor in the country’s latest factory activity data, which fell below expectations, Bloomberg noted.