Key Takeaways
- Wan Hai is not a DCSA member and has no public API. All programmatic tracking runs through third-party visibility platforms. The carrier’s website is protected by Incapsula/Imperva WAF, which blocks automated access.
- Wan Hai is primarily an intra-Asia carrier with approximately 124 vessels and around 600,000 TEU capacity (Alphaliner, Jan 2026), operating roughly 20 intra-Asia services with direct calls to 43 major Asian ports. It is expanding into longer-haul routes.
- Wan Hai may publish separate “Vessel Arrived” and “Vessel Berthed” events, according to visibility platform documentation. This would make Wan Hai one of the only carriers to distinguish between anchor and berth. However, this is only partially confirmed.
- Transshipment events are available, but documented “transshipment blind zones” exist where tracking pauses during hub operations.
- Schedule reliability is frequently the worst among carriers tracked by Sea-Intelligence — 53.3% in August, 47.9% in September, and 47.8% in December 2025. One source cites a low of 40.4%.
- Container prefixes include WHLU (primary), WHSU, and TPCU. The SCAC code is WHLC.
Schedule reliability figures, update cadence estimates, and carrier performance data referenced in this guide are based on third-party industry reports and may reflect specific monthly snapshots rather than sustained averages. Carrier systems and capabilities are subject to change.
Who This Is For
This guide is for freight forwarders, importers, and operations teams who track containers on Wan Hai — particularly those with intra-Asia supply chains — and need to understand a carrier with no API, no DCSA membership, aggressive bot protection, and the lowest schedule reliability in the industry. For the cross-carrier comparison, see our event naming guide.
What the Portal Shows You
Wan Hai’s tracking portal is on the carrier’s main website. The portal accepts container numbers and B/L numbers for basic tracking lookups without login. The interface is functional but basic — it provides a milestone timeline with dates and port names, without the visual enhancements that carriers like ONE or Hapag-Lloyd have added in recent years.
The Incapsula/Imperva WAF protection is significant. Wan Hai’s website is protected by a web application firewall that actively blocks automated access. This affects not just screen scrapers but also monitoring tools, browser extensions, and any non-standard HTTP client. If you are accessing the portal through an automated workflow, expect to be blocked. There is no public documentation on how to request whitelisting.
Container prefixes include WHLU (primary), WHSU, and TPCU. The SCAC code is WHLC. As with several other Asian carriers, the SCAC does not match the container prefix pattern (WHLC vs WHLU), which can cause mapping issues in TMS systems.
Wan Hai is expanding beyond intra-Asia. In September 2025, the carrier launched FM1, a Far East-to-Mediterranean service. It also operates PS6, a partnership with ONE serving the US West Coast. New vessel orders (32 ships) and the purchase of Osaka Terminal C9 in January 2026 signal a carrier growing beyond its traditional intra-Asia footprint. Tracking data availability on these newer, longer-haul routes may differ from the well-established intra-Asia services.
Event Names and What They Mean
Wan Hai’s event labels follow standard industry terminology, though the exact naming has been difficult to fully verify due to the WAF protection blocking automated documentation gathering. The labels below are based on third-party platform documentation and reported aggregator data.
| Wan Hai Event Label | What Actually Happened | DCSA Code |
|---|---|---|
| Gate In | Laden container entered the origin terminal | — |
| Loaded on Vessel | Container was lifted onto the vessel at port of loading | — |
| Vessel Departed | Ship left the port of loading | — |
| Vessel Arrived | Vessel arrived at the port (may be separate from Vessel Berthed — see note) | — |
| Vessel Berthed | Vessel has docked at berth (reported by aggregator platforms — partially confirmed) | — |
| Vessel Discharged | Container unloaded from the vessel at destination | — |
| Gate Out | Container left the destination terminal | — |
Every DCSA code column is blank. Wan Hai is not a DCSA member. All event labels are proprietary and require custom mapping for multi-carrier integrations.
The separate “Vessel Arrived” and “Vessel Berthed” events are potentially unique and operationally valuable. According to visibility platform documentation, Wan Hai may distinguish between anchor arrival and berth arrival as two separate events. If confirmed, this would make Wan Hai the only carrier among the top 12 that explicitly separates these two milestones. On ONE, Yang Ming, and HMM, “Vessel Arrival” means anchor, and there is no separate berth event. On Maersk and CMA CGM, “Arrival” means berthed. Wan Hai’s approach, reported by aggregator platforms, would give you both — eliminating the anchor ambiguity entirely.
However, this dual-event model is only partially confirmed. Vizion’s changelog documents special “vessel legs logic” for Wan Hai, suggesting the carrier’s data structure is different from other carriers. But the WAF protection has prevented independent verification. Treat the “Vessel Berthed” event as available but not guaranteed across all routes and ports.
“Vessel Discharged” is Wan Hai’s label for what most carriers call “Discharged.” The label is distinctive — no other carrier uses the “Vessel” prefix on the discharge event. This is worth noting in cross-carrier parsers.
Update Cadence: How Fresh Is the Data?
Wan Hai’s data lag is in the 6-12 hour range, based on third-party platform observations. The carrier does not publish official data freshness metrics. For intra-Asia voyages of 2-7 days, a 6-12 hour lag represents a proportionally larger gap than on a 30-day transpacific voyage. On a 3-day intra-Asia leg, a 12-hour lag means you might not see a departure event until the vessel is already approaching the destination.
Third-party data availability has been inconsistent. Vizion, one of the major visibility platforms that aggregates Wan Hai data, experienced connection disruptions with Wan Hai in July-August 2025 and a bug fix period in September-October 2025. During these periods, tracking data from Wan Hai through Vizion was degraded or unavailable. If you rely on a third-party platform for Wan Hai tracking, be aware that the data pipeline has been fragile.
Direct portal access is the most reliable path during disruptions. When third-party platforms experience connection issues with Wan Hai, the carrier’s own portal (assuming you can get through the WAF) remains the authoritative data source. This is one of the few carriers where the portal may be more reliable than the aggregated data.
Known Gaps and Quirks
Schedule reliability is frequently the worst in the industry. Wan Hai recorded 53.3% in August 2025, 47.9% in September, and 47.8% in December. One source cites a low of 40.4%. These numbers mean that more than half of Wan Hai’s sailings — and on some months, closer to 60% — deviate from the published schedule. ETAs on the portal should be treated as rough directional estimates, not operational targets.
No API of any kind. Wan Hai does not offer a REST API, a SOAP API, or even an EDI interface for external parties. All programmatic tracking depends entirely on third-party visibility platforms that have built scrapers or negotiated data feeds with Wan Hai. This makes Wan Hai the most digitally limited carrier in the top 12. If your third-party platform loses its connection to Wan Hai (as Vizion did in mid-2025), you have no fallback other than the WAF-protected portal.
Not a DCSA member. Alongside COSCO and OOCL, Wan Hai is one of three carriers in the top 12 that have not adopted DCSA standards. All event labels are proprietary and must be mapped manually in any multi-carrier integration.
Transshipment blind zones are documented. While Wan Hai does publish transshipment events, third-party platforms have documented “transshipment blind zones” where tracking pauses during hub operations. The container may be sitting at a transshipment terminal for days without any events posting. This is similar to MSC’s transshipment gaps, though Wan Hai’s intra-Asia hub operations tend to be shorter than MSC’s global hub dwell times.
The WAF protection creates operational friction. The Incapsula/Imperva WAF does not just block bots — it can block legitimate users with unusual browser configurations, VPN connections, or corporate proxy setups. If your operations team accesses Wan Hai’s portal through a corporate network with outbound proxy servers, expect intermittent access issues.
Intra-Asia focus means different tracking dynamics. Most of this guide series focuses on long-haul carriers where mid-ocean silence lasts weeks. On Wan Hai’s core intra-Asia services, voyages are 2-7 days. The tracking timeline is compressed: events fire closer together, silence is shorter, and the operational impact of a 6-12 hour lag is proportionally larger. A 12-hour lag on a 3-day voyage means you are 15-20% of the way through the transit before the departure event posts.
What to Do When Tracking Breaks
Scenario 1: Portal blocked by WAF. Disable VPN, clear cookies, try a different browser, or access from a different network. If your corporate proxy is being blocked, try accessing from a mobile connection. There is no published process for requesting WAF whitelisting.
Scenario 2: Third-party platform shows no Wan Hai data. Check whether the platform is experiencing a connection disruption with Wan Hai (Vizion had multiple disruptions in 2025). If so, access Wan Hai’s portal directly as a fallback. The portal data is the authoritative source even when aggregator feeds are working normally.
Scenario 3: “Vessel Arrived” posted but no “Vessel Berthed” or “Vessel Discharged.” If the separate “Vessel Arrived” / “Vessel Berthed” events are active for your route, the container may be at anchor waiting for a berth. Check the vessel’s position on MarineTraffic. If you do not see a “Vessel Berthed” event at all, the dual-event model may not be active for that port — fall back to waiting for “Vessel Discharged” as the operational trigger.
Scenario 4: Transshipment tracking went silent. This is a documented transshipment blind zone. Contact Wan Hai or your booking agent for the current status and confirmed onward vessel. The portal will not provide transshipment dwell updates proactively.
Scenario 5: ETA is wildly inaccurate. With schedule reliability below 50% in several months, large ETA deviations are common. Cross-reference the vessel’s current position on MarineTraffic or VesselFinder to estimate a more realistic arrival window. The portal ETA will eventually update, but it may lag the vessel’s actual position by hours.
API and Integration Options
Wan Hai does not offer a public API. No REST API, no public developer portal, and no documented programmatic integration path. This is the starkest digital limitation of any top-12 carrier. For context, even OOCL (the next most limited carrier) offers EDI through CargoSmart with documented formats and protocols. Wan Hai has no equivalent publicly advertised integration route.
All programmatic access comes through third-party platforms. Visibility platforms like Vizion and others have built data connections to Wan Hai — through scraping, direct data feeds, or negotiated arrangements. If you need Wan Hai tracking in your TMS or visibility platform, you must go through one of these intermediaries. There is no path to integrate directly with Wan Hai’s systems.
The third-party path has proven fragile. Vizion’s documented connection disruptions in July-August and September-October 2025 show that these intermediary data feeds are not always reliable. When the third-party connection breaks, there is no fallback except the WAF-protected portal. This creates a single point of failure for any automated Wan Hai tracking workflow.
Not a DCSA member. There are no DCSA-aligned data structures, no standard event codes, and no industry-standard API contract to build against. Integration with Wan Hai is always a custom effort, regardless of the path you take.
Operational Note: Wan Hai is the carrier where modern digital tracking infrastructure simply does not exist. No API, no DCSA, WAF-protected portal, fragile third-party data feeds, and schedule reliability below 50% in several months. The irony is that Wan Hai’s intra-Asia network — 25 service strings connecting 43 Asian ports — is operationally critical for many supply chains. If you ship on Wan Hai, the tracking gap is not a problem you can solve through technology alone. It requires process: manual portal checks, direct communication with Wan Hai’s local offices, and wider operational buffers than you would build for any other carrier.
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