Virus Disrupts China’s Shipping, and World Ports Feel the Impact

Places like Jiangxi Province and the metropolis of Chongqing this week ordered the removal of most of the countless roadblocks and checkpoints erected by towns and cities to keep infected travelers out. Shanghai agreed on Tuesday to let trucks enter and leave the city with few health checks, even as people arriving in cars and buses remain subject to lengthy scrutiny and, in some cases, 14-day quarantines.

Some factories still have goods that they produced and never shipped in January, before the Lunar New Year holiday that turned into a monthlong nationwide shutdown. “There is a backlog of factory production to be shipped once factories reopen, and there is insufficient trucking capacity,” said Brian Wu, the chairman of the Hong Kong Association of Freight Forwarding and Logistics.

Seaport cranes and other equipment seem to be operating normally in China, although a shortage of trucks has made it hard for some ports to distribute goods once they have been unloaded. “We don’t see any abnormal situation in the ports — most of the ports and for that matter the customs, are working at full capacity,” Mr. Wu said.

About three-fifths of China’s trucking capacity is working again, A.P. Moller-Maersk Group of Denmark, the world’s largest shipping line, said in a statement Thursday. The company said three of China’s biggest coastal ports — Shanghai, Ningbo and Xingang — were clogged with refrigerated containers full of imported vegetables, fruit and frozen meat.

Maersk has responded with a $1,000-per-container fee for electricity to prevent spoilage before trucks can be found to ship the food inland.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/business/economy/china-coronavirus-shipping-ports.html