Shanghai International Port Group has addressed rumours of serious congestion at the port as the city’s lockdown is extended.
SIPG specifically said that reports of 350 ships queueing to berth in Shanghai are untrue and the port’s productivity is on par with the same period last year.
SIPG said, “On average, each ship waits at most 24 hours for a berth and at any one time, not more than 10 ships are queuing to berth.”
SIPG acknowledged that the recent outbreak has hindered imports and exports and it is making every effort to stabilise the supply chain and logistics processes.
“All production units in Shanghai Port are currently operating normally 24 hours a day, except for extreme bad weather,” noted SIPG.
SIPG has also introduced a “land-to-water” container transportation service allowing customers to transport containers to Taicang Service Centre, to be transferred to Shanghai by ship, to avoid trucking bottlenecks.
Shanghai International Shipping Research Center’s data shows that since Q1 2022, the number of container ships arriving in Shanghai has increased by nearly 36% year-on-year compared with Q1 2021. This is close to levels in the traditional Q3 peak season, showing that Shanghai’s container transportation volume is maintained at a high level.
Industry insiders have, however, alluded to trucking difficulties as other cities are unwilling to grant entry to drivers from Shanghai.
The rumours only underscore the growing public health crisis in the city that is home to the world’s busiest container port, as Shanghai reported 9,006 Covid-19 infections on 3 April, prompting the Chinese government to deploy more than 2,000 military doctors, as well as more than 38,000 healthcare workers from neighbouring Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and the capital Beijing to help test Shanghai’s 26 million residents.
Shanghai began what was supposed to be an eight-day phased lockdown on 28 March that saw residents taking turns to be tested, according to the Pudong and Puxi districts. However, the lockdown is being extended as testing has not been completed.
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
