FREIGHT across China is again being impacted by a surge in COVID-19 cases and a subsequent wave of lockdown measures.
Shipping companies have reported limited trucking availability and broader impacts to landside operations, which is affecting port operations.
Freight operations were also disrupted across the country’s major port cities in March as a wave of restrictions came into force amid an omicron outbreak.
Ports in Shenzhen and Shanghai were among those impacted by the lockdowns last month as disruptions to landside operations impacted air and sea freight services.
Describing the current situation as of Wednesday this week, Maersk said in a statement that local authorities had imposed a lockdown in Shanghai, which was expected to lift on Tuesday.
However, a situation update from Ocean Network Express suggests some measures have been extended until further notice.
“ONE is carefully monitoring the situation of Shanghai port and terminal from these measures and restrictions,” they said in the update.
“Currently the port and terminal operations remain operational, however trucking availability is very limited, and this has impeded clearance of import cargoes.”
ONE said it is prepared to arrange change-of-destination for customers to discharge at other ports, store cargo at transhipment ports, and transport cargo to Shanghai once the situation allows.
Maersk said Shanghai ports Waigaoqiao and Yangshan are currently operating as normal, and that the company had not omitted or diverted any of its Shanghai calls due to the outbreak.
However, the warehouse in the lockdown-affected area has reportedly been seriously impacted.
“It is foreseeable that the efficiency of Maersk trucking services from/to Shanghai will be further impacted due to the lockdown,” the company said in a statement.
“We are providing multi-modal services via barge and rail as alternative solutions between Shanghai and nearby cities.”
In terms of airfreight, Maersk said gateway operations in Shanghai are continuing as normal, however larger volumes of freight are expected to be shifted to other airports including Zhengzhou and Beijing as airlines cancel flights.
Lockdown measures around Shanghai are expected to create supply chain bottlenecks stemming from the trucking capacity shortage.
Maersk said factory, warehouse, and trucking operations are still recovering from significant impact where positive cases were identified, and that urgent support measures have been impacted to support truck drivers.
“There will be noticeable drop-in trucking services between Shenzhen and nearby cities due to stricter COVID-19 controls and need for drivers to have frequent NATs, leading to longer delivery times and higher transport costs,” the company said.
“In Hong Kong, together checks and tests on cross-boundary truckers have led to a cut of at least 70% in trucking capacity, which in turn is having a domino effect in the rest of the supply chain.
“The same challenge also applies to Shanghai for inter-provincial pick-up and drop-off.”
Maersk reported that airfreight has also been affected as airlines adapt and reduce the frequency of flights due to a decline in demand.
“The situation in China will cast a challenge onto the global supply chain recovery,” Maersk said.
“The pandemic has revealed how lean the supply chain has become and any small disruption in the country will likely lead to ripple effects across the world.”
According to an article from Reuters, the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China confirmed the freight challenges at ports, which have been attributed to a strategy characterised by major lockdowns.
Chamber president Joerg Wuttke reportedly told a media roundtable it would likely impact China’s ability to export, which could eventually stoke inflation.
“In China, COVID is still associated as if it were the plague,” he told media this week.
“I think there needs a bit more education from the Chinese authorities, to take the fear away in order to make people more comfortable to live with this kind of uncertainty,” he said.
