China’s coastal city, home to some of the world’s busiest ports and airports, began locking down half of the city on Monday and intends to do the same for the other half for four days from Friday. , in a two-step test exercise.
Although its airports and deep-sea port have remained open, the city has imposed tough traffic restrictions, barring unauthorized vehicles from the streets and asking millions of people not to leave their homes.
“Truck services in and out of Shanghai will be severely affected by the complete lockdown of Pudong and Puxi areas until April 5,” Maersk, the world’s second-largest container carrier, said in a statement. notice sent to its customers on Monday.
He adds that warehouses in Shanghai will be closed until Friday.
“Therefore, the delivery time will be longer and there will be a possible increase in transportation costs such as detour fees and highway fees.”
Transfer to Ningbo
SEKO Logistics, a US freight forwarding and warehousing company, said factories in neighboring Zhejiang province are choosing to ship their goods through the port of Ningbo, rather than Shanghai.
“We anticipate: a sharp increase in airfreight rates from today. We have already received very high offers for European inquiries until today,” the company said on his website.
The Chinese coast around Shanghai (Source Google Maps)
China is facing its highest number of COVID-19 infections since the start of the country’s initial outbreak, which subsided in early 2020. This month it imposed lockdowns to other manufacturing export hubs, such as Changchun and Shenzhen, leading to increasingly long queues at major Chinese ports.
While restrictions remained in place in Changchun, they were eased in Shenzhen, where businesses and factories were allowed to resume operations on March 21.