Containers pile up in Shanghai due to truck shortage

In Shanghai, millions of people are trapped at home, leading to food shortages and serious logistical problems. While the ports have been active recently, a shortage of truck drivers seems to be causing more and more problems.

Ships that are carrying metals such as copper and iron ore have to wait offshore because trucks cannot get the goods from the port to the factories. According to the Bloomberg news agency, containers are piling up at the Shanghai port. Manufacturers are also facing shipping problems, which makes it difficult to ship finished products to ports. In several Chinese cities, truck drivers have also been pulled over for corona testing, and in some cases even sent back.

On Monday, 222 bulk carriers were waiting off the coast of Shanghai. As a result, the number of waiting ships increased by 15% in a month. On April 7, the arrival time of imported containers from Shanghai went up to 8 days. On March 28, when Shanghai went into lockdown, it was still 4.6 days. For export containers is this effect not visible. Compared to March 28, delivery times for export containers actually decreased a little bit. Shipping company Maersk announced in an update on Friday that road transport to and from major Chinese ports will remain available as long as drivers test negative. Due to the current situation, shipping companies do expect to see less efficiency in freight transport to and from Shanghai.

Shanghai has been in a semi-lockdown since March 28. On April 5, the lockdown in Shanghai was supposed to end, but unfortunately it was postponed for an unknown time. Currently, the entire city is in lockdown and the restricted area has even been extended to nearby Ningbo-Zhoushan.

A large part of the population in Shanghai has been sitting at home for two weeks, having difficulty accessing food and medical care. Economists say this situation is increasingly affecting the global economy. Economists expect a 5% economic growth in the country this year, whereas it was initially supposed to be 5.5%, according to Bloomberg news agency. At present, corona attacks have been reported in 21 of China’s 31 provinces.