Shipping firms are scrambling to switch to other Chinese ports to avoid delays at the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, which suspended some trucking services after an outbreak of COVID-19, freight forwarders and experts have said.
Ships are also rerouting to Xiamen in the south, Bloomberg shipping data showed.
Those diversions are adding to a new wave of congestion facing China’s ports as an increasing number of cities deal with COVID-19 outbreaks.
Photo: AFP
Strict testing of workers and truckers ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday at the end of this month is further stressing already strained supply chains as the COVID-19 pandemic heads into its third year.
In the country’s technology hub of Shenzhen in the south, testing of residents and truckers to contain an outbreak meant that a line of ships has formed at the port, which caused the Shekou terminal to start restricting the acceptance of goods, meaning that from today, full containers can only be trucked in three days before vessels are due to arrive, the terminal operator said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the northern Chinese city of Tianjin ordered workers to take a half-day break for COVID-19 testing, as officials try to contain an outbreak involving the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Trucking capacity is estimated to be half of normal levels, and drivers are required to be tested daily before entering the port, said Alex Hersham, chief executive officer of digital freight forwarder Zencargo.
That outbreak has now spread to the port city of Dalian, with two people who traveled there from Tianjin confirmed to have the Omicron variant.
The influx of ships into Shanghai has delayed sailing schedules for container ships by about one week, freight forwarders said.
Those delays might ripple outward to already backlogged gateways in the US and Europe, they said.
“The port congestion issue will continue to impact restocking cycles this quarter, alongside the Omicron breakout and the impending Chinese [Lunar] New Year closures in China,” said Josh Brazil, vice president of supply chain insights at logistics intelligence firm project44.
SELL-OFF: Investors expect tariff-driven volatility as the local boarse reopens today, while analysts say government support and solid fundamentals would steady sentiment Local investors are bracing for a sharp market downturn today as the nation’s financial markets resume trading following a two-day closure for national holidays before the weekend, with sentiment rattled by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement. Trump’s unveiling of new “reciprocal tariffs” on Wednesday triggered a sell-off in global markets, with the FTSE Taiwan Index Futures — a benchmark for Taiwanese equities traded in Singapore — tumbling 9.2 percent over the past two sessions. Meanwhile, the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the TAIEX, plunged 13.8 percent in
A wave of stop-loss selling and panic selling hit Taiwan's stock market at its opening today, with the weighted index plunging 2,086 points — a drop of more than 9.7 percent — marking the largest intraday point and percentage loss on record. The index bottomed out at 19,212.02, while futures were locked limit-down, with more than 1,000 stocks hitting their daily drop limit. Three heavyweight stocks — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn, 鴻海精密) and MediaTek (聯發科) — hit their limit-down prices as soon as the market opened, falling to NT$848 (US$25.54), NT$138.5 and NT$1,295 respectively. TSMC's
TARIFFS: The global ‘panic atmosphere remains strong,’ and foreign investors have continued to sell their holdings since the start of the year, the Ministry of Finance said The government yesterday authorized the activation of its NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) National Stabilization Fund (NSF) to prop up the local stock market after two days of sharp falls in reaction to US President Donald Trump’s new import tariffs. The Ministry of Finance said in a statement after the market close that the steering committee of the fund had been given the go-ahead to intervene in the market to bolster Taiwanese shares in a time of crisis. The fund has been authorized to use its assets “to carry out market stabilization tasks as appropriate to maintain the stability of Taiwan’s
In a small town in Paraguay, a showdown is brewing between traditional producers of yerba mate, a bitter herbal tea popular across South America, and miners of a shinier treasure: gold. A rush for the precious metal is pitting mate growers and indigenous groups against the expanding operations of small-scale miners who, until recently, were their neighbors, not nemeses. “They [the miners] have destroyed everything... The canals, springs, swamps,” said Vidal Britez, president of the Yerba Mate Producers’ Association of the town of Paso Yobai, about 210km east of capital Asuncion. “You can see the pollution from the dead fish.
RSS