Data about liners' weekly sailings on Asia-Europe routes from Sea-Intelligence show that vessel capacity on the trade lanes which Yantian serves declined slightly in the first few weeks following the port closure, and it then increased significantly and "is presently planned to increase even further".

That contrasts with the Suez Canal incident, after which the trade lane capacity saw no material increase in the subsequent months with even a secondary "dip" at a time.

Hence, the Yantian event's impact is only "local," said the analyst.

"It is highly disruptive to South China cargo, but it has not led to an overall negative impact on the capacity offered on the entirety of the Asia-Europe trade," it said.

Cosco Shipping Holdings, which controls the world's third-largest containership fleet, said the Yantian disruption would impact more than 200 sailings in the sector overall.

It added that some shipments might be forced to go through eastern China, where major ports such as Shanghai and Ningbo are located.

About 20 per cent-25 per cent of China's seaborne exports to the US were handled by Yantian before the incident, the Shanghai- and Hong Kong-listed company's management told an investor meeting.

"So, any omissions to the port will easily cause congestions at other ports as demand remains high," said Cosco. "We're observing when Yantian will fully recover its productivity."

Nearby ports, such as Nansha and Shekou, used as an alternative to Yantian by carriers, have already been clogged due to the massive shift of cargo flows.

Latest figures from Lloyd's List Intelligence show 99 boxships comprising 426,924 TEU in the anchorages nearby the two ports as well as Hong Kong.

The queue is not getting much smaller when compared to 85 ships, or 441,337 TEU, seen on June 23.

Sea-Intelligence, however, pointed out that carriers' quick reaction to the Yantian crisis - by introducing hundreds of vessel omissions with only a few turned into replacement calls at neighbouring ports - has managed to prevent the fallout from bursting into a broader logistics chaos.