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Container mountains in the deep water port of Shanghai (October 2020)
Photo: Aly Song / REUTERS
The strict corona lockdown in Shanghai is having a massive impact on the world's largest container port - and is causing new disruptions in global shipping traffic.
According to the data provider VesselsValue, more than 300 cargo ships are stuck in a traffic jam in front of the port area of the Chinese economic metropolis to be loaded or unloaded.
"Depending on the terminal, the waiting times are between three days and a week, sometimes even more," said Peter Sand, chief analyst at the analysis company Xeneta, which specializes in shipping, to SPIEGEL.
Handling in the port area is currently only running at around a quarter of normal capacity.
"We will feel the effects around the world for months."
There is a lack of truckers
More than 47 million standard containers were handled in the Shanghai port area in 2021, more than anywhere else in the world.
But the lockdown imposed at the end of March is slowing down operations.
There are massive delays, especially with imports, says Sand.
The port is still operating at all because workers have been living together in a “corona bubble” for weeks: shielded from the rest of the world.
In view of concerns about food shortages in Shanghai, ships carrying this cargo are now being handled preferentially at the terminals.
But: "When the ships are unloaded, there is often a lack of truckers to transport these containers away," says Sand.
Truck drivers are often subject to strict restrictions themselves.
There are also considerable delays in some exports.
Some shipping companies have therefore withdrawn their ships from the traffic jam in front of Shanghai, while others do not even head for the port area.
However, corona-related restrictions were recently imposed in other major Chinese ports such as Guangzhou or Ningbo.
Expert Sand expects new disruptions to global supply chains: even in the unlikely event that the lockdown in Shanghai should be lifted soon.
Because in the weeks that follow, only a few ships will arrive in the recipient ports in America and Europe - and then too many at once.
The next freighter traffic jams in other parts of the world are programmed.
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