A new tropical storm is threatening to wreak more havoc in the already battered Macau peninsula, Chinese meteorologists have warned.
There is a 70 percent chance that Macau, which is still reeling from tropical storm Hato’s fury, will be in the path of tropical storm Pakhar, according to The South China Morning Post.
Tropical storm Pakhar, which will likely pass Macau on Sunday morning, is said to be weaker than Typhoon Hato.
With this in mind, many analysts are already predicting that Macau’s previously exceptional August growth rate will take a significant hit of “at least a couple hundred” basis points.
Investment firm Union Gaming noted that many of the casinos on the Macau peninsula were barely operating, while it was more-or-less business as usual on Cotai with mass market foot traffic broadly in line with a normal midweek afternoon.
Analyst Grant Govertsen pointed out that it’s likely that the VIP and premium mass numbers will slow as players lay low for a while.
“Cotai is generally in pretty good shape as of this afternoon, which we would attribute to much better (newer) infrastructure, including much wider roads. All major roads are cleared and traverse-able and we saw numerous full shuttle buses arriving at Cotai properties with mass market customers coming from the ferry terminals. The Cotai operators seem to have done an excellent job of cleaning up their own properties and grounds from felled trees and clearing the way for pedestrian traffic,” Govertsen said. “The Macau peninsula is in much worse shape than Cotai, which is primarily a function of much denser development (and closer to sea level making it more prone to flooding); this in turn makes for much more difficult to navigate roads as it could take days to clean up various debris.”
Typhoon Hato struck Macau with wind speeds of more than 200 kilometres per hour (124 mph) on Tuesday, leaving nine people dead and scores more injured, as well as damaging some Macau casino resorts and causing flooding in certain districts.
Casino stocks immediately took a beating after Typhoon Hato unleashed its destructive force in Macau.
