The world’s largest container port in Shanghai has managed to maintain operations during the Covid lockdown of China’s commercial heart, but daily container handling dropped by about 25% in April.
With many of the factories shut down, warehouses closed and logistics options limited, cargo volume at Shanghai port dropped in April.
The daily average container handling capacity of Shanghai was expected to be around 100,000 teu during April a decline of 25% compared with the normal levels in the past.
In particular while the port was operational there was a severe shortage of trucking capacity on the landside. To reduce inland container transportation pressure, Shanghai heavily promoted water-to-water with barging and feedering from nearby ports, land-to-sea and sea-rail combined transportation to try and stabilise the supply chain.
In April, water-to-water transshipment volume of Shanghai was around 1.99m teu, accounting for 65% of the total container volume of Shanghai port in April.
The lockdown continues in much of Shanghai although there have been tentative steps to open areas where transmission has dropped to zero. The city government is also pushing to get more factory production back into operation.
