Container ship bottlenecks at key Chinese ports have been warned as a result of a new Chinese lockdown triggered by COVID-19 breakouts in manufacturing export centres.
This month, China is seeing a COVID-19 increase, prompting movement controls across the country, particularly in important manufacturing hubs Shenzhen, home to the Yantian container terminal, and Dongguan.
Despite the fact that China’s main ports remain open and vessels continue to dock, forwarders indicate that congestion is building and that some container ships are re-routing to avoid anticipated delays. Charter prices are projected to increase as shipping freight delays persist.
According to Jasmine Wall, Asia-Pacific manager of SEKO Logistics, owing to the new Chinese lockdown measures, container loading is “decreasing massively” at the world’s fourth largest container terminal, Shenzhen’s Yantian port.
According to Refinitiv ship monitoring data, there were seven vessels ready to port off Shenzen at the same time last year; this year, there are 34.
“This implies that it will become difficult to get cargo to and from the ports and hence whether the terminals are open or not becomes a moot point,” said Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime, a container shipping advisor.
“It will have a disruptive impact on the supply chain – in turn prolonging the current supply chain crisis.”
With other neighbouring export hubs, such as Hong Kong and Shanghai, experiencing bottlenecks, vessels may have to wait until congestion eases before loading cargo, causing goods to be delayed.
