Automatic identification system location and draught data for the last 12 months shows that beginning immediately after the Chinese New Year holidays an increasing volume of ships from handysize to post-panamax has begun calling in an area of the Taiwan Bank about 80 kilometres east-southeast of Shantou.

The data, surveyed through the VesselsValue shipping data platform and other sources, shows that the ships arrive in ballast and anchor well outside the main coastal shipping lane in the area where the Taiwan Strait opens into the South China Sea.