On Sunday, March 27th, Shanghai officials announced a city-wide lockdown after an extreme surge in COVID-19 cases. This mandate follows a similar 7-day lockdown imposed on Shenzhen that just recently ended on the 20th.
Per one article, the details of the lockdown are as follows: “districts east of the Huangpu River, including the Pudong financial and commercial center, will be closed from Monday (March 28) to April 1 to enable testing to be carried out. Areas west of the Huangpu, including older city center districts such as Puxi, will be locked down and tested between April 1-5. All bridges and tunnels connecting the two sides of the Huangpu, including metro lines, will be shut the entire time.”
It is important to note that Shanghai ports Waigaoqiao and Yangshan, will remain open and operate per normal procedures. However, the local depots and warehouses are likely to slow, as well as landside transportation. Truckers traveling between Shanghai and other cities are being met with tight restrictions, thus making it difficult for manufacturers to move their products between the port and the airport in a timely manner.
That all considered, for the next 10 days, shippers can expect a noticeable disruption in freight movements.