Trucks wait to load containers at Yangshan Deepwater Port on Apin Shanghai, China. Ships have faced growing delays since late March outside Ningbo-Zhoushan port, the world’s third largest port, less than a hundred miles from Shanghai, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence.Ĭontainers are also piling up because of truck shortages. Pressure is also building on other Chinese ports, as vessels try to find alternative ports to berth. The number of vessels waiting at the Port of Shanghai had increased to 384 by April 25, up 27% from a month earlier, according to most recent data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. In Shanghai - the epicenter of China’s current Covid outbreak, the situation remains severe. On Thursday, Xi told all levels of government to “resolutely adhere to the zero-Covid policy.”Ĭhina is home to seven of the world’s top ten container ports, including Shanghai, Ningbo-Zhoushan, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong. President Xi Jinping signaled this week that China would continue with its zero tolerance approach to Covid. Beijing effectively shut down its largest district this week. It’s clear that lockdowns in China have caused a bottleneck, the firm said.Īcross China, at least 27 cities are under full or partial lockdown, which could be impacting up to 185 million residents across the country, according to latest CNN calculation on Wednesday. That’s 412 ships, up 58% since February, the survey added. Nearly 20% of container vessels globally are currently waiting outside congested ports, according to a survey published last Thursday by Windward, an Israel-based global maritime data firm.Īlmost a quarter of those unberthed ships are stuck outside Chinese ports. Shipping queues are getting worse in China - and other parts of the world. It “just takes a little bit of disruption to really change the environment all over again,” she added. Shelley Simpson, chief commercial officer for JB Hunt Transport Services, said late last month that while there has been “a temporary relief” at US ports, things may get a lot “a lot worse” this summer because of what’s happening in China. US supply chain companies have expressed concerns about fresh chaos heading towards American ports, which are still recovering from the severe congestion and delays they suffered last year. Shanghai port remained open throughout the lockdown, but data from various shipping firms show an increasing backlog of ships and containers. The Covid restrictions have spread to other cities, including Beijing - the nation’s capital. More than 8 million residents are still banned from leaving their residential compounds. Shanghai - China’s leading financial center and most populous city - has been under a strict lockdown since late March. “The ripples in shipment delays are only beginning to become visible and are expected to extend well into the next few months,” said Brazil. Factories that do reopen are facing component shortages and difficulty in securing trucks to carry goods into or out of the port. Wang Gang/FeatureChina/APģ reasons Shanghai's lockdown matters to the global economyĪlthough authorities have allowed some businesses to restart production, many workers are still stuck in quarantine at home. “With the manufacturing industry being shuttered and truckers unable to travel quickly, exports have been reduced, and shipment delays have increased,” said Josh Brazil, director of Supply Chain Data Insights at Project44.ĭelays will “continue into the summer months,” as factories struggle to return to normal operations in Shanghai, he added.Īn ambulance runs in an empty street in Shanghai, China Friday, April 08, 2022. Shipping giant Maersk warned in an advisory last month that trucking services in Shanghai would be “severely” impacted by these restrictions. To add to the problem, many truck drivers have struggled to reach ports in China to pick up containers because of travel restrictions and Covid testing requirements. Since March, however, there’s been a sharp increase again in transit times on that route. The time it takes ships to leave China and arrive at major ports around the world increased steadily over the past year, but there had been some signs of relief since December with transit times between Shanghai and Long Beach, for example, dropping in January and February. Str/Reutersīy the end of April, ships from China to Seattle were taking four days longer than expected to arrive, up from about one day the previous month. A Cosco Shipping container ship is seen at the Yangshan Deep Water Port amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Shanghai, China April 24, 2022.
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