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From 5:00 am on April 1, both sides of the Huangpu River in Shanghai have entered a state of closure and control. The Port of Shanghai, one of the busiest ports in the world, has ranked first in the world for 12 consecutive years as its container throughput exceeded 47 million TEUs in 2021. Under the haze of the epidemic, Can Shanghai port can continue to have efficient turnover? The shipping concerns raise with the congestion of goods that go through Shanghai port.
SIPJ reports:
On April 2, on the news of “serious congestion in Shanghai port”, SIPJ (Shanghai International Port Group) also responded that the terminal production and operation are as usual, the container ship did not show congestion. According to the internal data monitoring of SIPJ, the current operation of Shanghai Port is smooth and orderly, and the berthing efficiency of Shanghai Port is significantly better than the overall level in 2021.
The real reason for congestion:
According to the observation data of VesselsValue, the number of various types of ships waiting in the sea near Shanghai did show a rising trend in March. According to Statistics, from March 1 to March 30, the number of ships berthing in the sea near Shanghai increased by more than 70% year on year. In the past two days, the number has still increased. Shipping companies have been adjusting their business in Shanghai to make sure their goods can arrive timely.
Notice issued by Shanghai Road Transport Administration said, from March 29, container vehicles involved in inbound transportation at Shanghai Port are required to hold an electronic anti-epidemic pass issued by Shanghai Port Group. And the condition for obtaining the passcard is that the container truck driver holds both a certificate of a negative nucleic acid test within 48 hours and a certificate of negative antigen test within 24 hours.
Lin Hao (a pseudonym) is a large international shipping company staff. He revealed to China Newsweek, that most of the business of his company has come to a halt. Many container yard (for the delivery and storage of containers) personnel, and container truck drivers are banned and controlled in the place of residence, resulting in the lack of transport of empty boxes of vehicles. The yard can only complete the basic business such as lifting boxes, return boxes “. The epidemic made the access of port workers and container truck drivers not as smooth as before, which led to the delay in cargo timeliness. At the same time, the vast majority of the cargo source of Shanghai port comes from the Yangtze River Delta region, not from local factories in Shanghai. And there are few local freight drivers in Shanghai, so the inter-provincial freight of collector trucks is directly affected.
So the real cause of the current port congestion is the inability to unload and transport cargo to the place where it is received in a timely manner.
The shipping situation still needs concerns
The chief consultant of Shanghai International Shipping Research Center, Zhang Yongfeng, said that the current Shanghai port is container-based. Because the port has implemented closed-loop management, coupled with the Shanghai port container terminal automation level is relatively high, so the impact of the epidemic on port operations is relatively small, the main impact lies in the container truck drivers and inter-provincial transport. According to CNBC business analyst Lori Ann LaRocco, the port is not just a place for ships, no one uses trucks to get cargo out of the warehouse, which means no one will engage in trade. There are 2 things that we all know can prove the above theory: the lack of warehouse staff in the U.S. and Western ports caused the port congestion, and the Spanish container truck drivers’ strike led to the disruption of local container transport.
Although Shanghai Port Group launched the “land to water” adjustment, compared to container trucking, barge transport efficiency is still limited. It can not fill the gap brought about by the decline in road transport capacity.
At present, the efficiency of container truck transportation and the operational efficiency of port operations will be affected to a greater or lesser extent. But the information on which specific link is more influential and to what extent is still unclear and undetermined. An extension of the shutdown in Shanghai is likely to result in a bigger disruption than expected.
Our actions to prevent the shipping crisis
Because of Shanghai’s epidemic prevention and control policy, Shanghai’s road transportation and flights are in bad status. We have to adjust our logistics structure to deal with the shipping concerns. Our previous logistics is shipped directly from Shanghai to foreign countries, but now the goods need to be shipped to Hangzhou for transit first and then sent to Shenzhen, and then sent to foreign countries from Shenzhen. So there will be a delay of 3-5 days before and after.
But don’t worry, it won’t take long for this situation because the Shanghai district is going to unlock and recover.
To avoid the potential lockdown risks, Dropship China Pro has also sent warehouse staff in Hangzhou to the Shenzhen Dongguan fulfillment center to make sure of the normal operation. So we are ready for the shipping concerns that may be caused by the next international logistics crisis.