Shippers in eastern China face weeks of disruption to freight movements after authorities imposed a two-stage lockdown in Shanghai beginning Monday to test all 26 million inhabitants for COVID-19 amid a continuing surge in cases.
Carriers said while Shanghai’s main container terminals at Yangshan and Waigaoqiao remain open with vessel operations, yard handling, and gate-in/gate-out operating normally, many depots and warehouses are shut, and trucking is severely curtailed.
“Coming so soon after the lockdown in Shenzhen, Shanghai’s lockdown will effectively shutter the world’s largest container port for the next 10 days,” a senior executive at a Hong Kong-based freight forwarder told JOC.com. “While city authorities will be determined to keep the terminals operating, the restrictions to factories, warehouses, and truck movements means little cargo will go in or out of the port.”
“Shanghai has been beset by vessel delays, and the lockdown will likely lengthen vessel wait times,” the executive added.
Shanghai handled more than 47 million TEU in 2021, up 8 percent year on year.
Shanghai officials announced the city-wide lockdown Sunday after Shanghai reported more than 2,630 new COVID cases, the highest one-day number since China’s initial outbreak two years ago.
Under the lockdown rules, districts east of the Huangpu River, including the Pudong financial and commercial center, will be closed from Monday to April 1 to enable testing to be carried out. Areas west of the Huangpu, including older city center districts such as Puxi, will be locked down and tested between April 1-5. All bridges and tunnels connecting the two sides of the Huangpu, including metro lines, will be shut the entire time.
“We have been notified that the Shanghai ports, Waigaoqiao and Yangshan, are currently working as per normal,” a Maersk China spokesperson told JOC.com Monday. “However, local depots [and] warehouses, including Maersk’s wholly owned OceanEast warehouse in the Lingang area, and trucking services have been impacted due to the lockdown and we expect landside transportation efficiency will be reduced.”
Lingang is the main free trade zone in Shanghai’s Pudong district and the closest trade zone to the Yangshan deepwater port.
Some facilities were open, though. Maersk listed about 12 dry freight depots and three reefer depots that remained open for empty container pick-up and returns Monday.
“We expect most companies to work remotely during this period and factories to suspend manufacturing,” Marco Gaeta, managing director for Asia and the Middle East at Singapore-headquartered FIBS Logistics, told JOC.com. “Port and airport operations will inevitably be affected with the restrictions in movement.”
Luxembourg-based cargo airline Cargolux canceled flights to and from Shanghai for the rest of this week. Maersk said it’s likely many other airlines will be evaluating possible flight cancellations.
Airport workers were recalled at the weekend to create a closed-loop bubble to allow them to continue working during the lockdown, but FIBS Logistics said trucks outside Shanghai are unable to travel to either the airport or port area.
Maersk said handling of air cargo already in on-airport warehouses is likely to continue, but new cargo will be affected by labor shortages and delivery delays.
Trucking restrictions
Freight forwarders said the restrictions on truckers traveling between Shanghai and cities in adjacent provinces including Jiangsu, Anhui, and Zhejiang will make it virtually impossible for manufacturers in those provinces to truck products to Shanghai’s port and airport until at least next week.
Highlighting the impact on cargo shipments, Crane Worldwide Logistics said there were very few trucks on the road in Pudong Monday morning.
“Trucking and container drayage service between Shanghai and adjacent cities and provinces are now also suspended,” Crane said in an advisory. “That means cargo cannot be delivered by suppliers to our air freight warehouses and ocean CFS. Factory loadings cannot be performed. Delivery from ocean terminals and air import warehouses to Shanghai’s Puxi area and to other cities has become impossible.”
Maersk said trucking capacity in Shanghai alone is expected to drop by 30 percent as drivers are either required to stay home to undergo testing or are unable to enter the port districts due to the lockdowns.
“Most truck companies and warehouses in Pudong have been locked down. This includes FCL and LCL warehouses,” FIBS Logistics said in a customer advisory Monday.
“Trucking to Yangshan port from Ningbo should be hard to impossible,” the company added.
The lockdown in Shanghai came as operations in Shenzhen were returning to normal following its seven-day lockdown that ended March 20. “Trucking between Shenzhen and nearby cities has gradually recovered,” Maersk said in its customer advisory.
But other cities were continuing to face disruption. FIBS Logistics said while Qingdao port and airport was operating, operating efficiency was very low due to COVID-19 prevention measures and “the trucking situation is very serious.” Some customers were postponing bookings due to lockdowns in cities around Qingdao.