Congestion at the Chinese ports is getting worse

by The Editorial Team

March 22, 2022

Shenzhen lifted the week-long lockdown yesterday, but part of its central business district remains closed as the city tries to get back to zero COVID-19 cases. On top of that, limited trucking and warehousing availability created some supply chain issues.

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While the port workers were allowed to work for the duration of the lockdown, there have been created some supply chain issues.

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According to Maersk’s forecast, vessel waiting times will increase in Shenzhen. In other regions, COVID-19 flare-ups are causing port pressures at key gateways including Qingdao, Shanghai and Ningbo-Zhoushan.

Congestion at Chinese ports surged over the past week as the lockdown of several Chinese cities affected productivity at the main ports with dense fog also affecting operations at several ports in Northern China

…a container analysis firm said.

Also, in Hong Kong, forwarders estimate a cut of at least 70% trucking capacity, which in turn is having a domino effect on the rest of the supply chain.

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In the past days. some carriers, such as Maersk, MSC and Hapag-Lloyd, have been forced to change their schedules in order to avoid the worst of the Chinese port congestion

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Additionally, the congestion issue is not just affecting container operations. Data from Braemar ACM from last Thursday showed that queues of laden capesize bulk carriers had grown by 26% week-on-week to 7.4m dwt, standing 12.3% above the five-year average for the time of year.

The scope for a rebound in congestion, as a result of the lockdowns, is now higher given the constraints ports are under when employee infections rise

…Braemar ACM stated.

Up until now, tankers do not appear to be hit by the new COVID-19 wave in the country. According to AXSMarine, there hasn’t been noted an increase in the waiting times at any of China’s major oil import or export terminals.

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For this specific issue, the Predictive Maritime Intelligence company Windward had released its latest insights on how Shenzhen ports locking down might affect the supply chain. Windward analyzed the recent trends in the area in order to see how this news might affect the supply chain.

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After China announced the lockdown in order to stop the spread of the omicron variant across the country, it was noted that ships’ queues are building up at important Chinese ports, as China’s policy for COVID-19 started creating big concerns for the supply chains.