During the last weeks several cities of China have been found under partial or total confinement due to a resurgence of COVID-19, being Shanghai one of the most affected.
This city is the largest China and a world financial center, which has one of the most important merchandise ports for international trade, so its confinement has generated a bottleneck in its port.
Given this, a report by BBC Mundo indicates that the confinement to which the city is subjected, which has had the largest port in the world for the last 10 years, is hindering the arrival of the trucks that have to take the goods.
“The restrictions mainly affect the roads leading to and from the port, resulting in a build-up of containers and a 30% reduction in productivity,” Mike Kerley, investment manager at firm Janus Henderson, told the BBC.
Data from the European Union Chamber of Commerce indicates that there were between 40% and 50% fewer trucks available, and less than 30% of the workforce Shanghai I might go back to work.
According to VesselsValue, a provider of data from maritime transport Globally, waiting times for tankers, bulk carriers and container ships have risen sharply since March.
At the beginning of April they reported that the number of ships waiting to load or unload in the port of Shanghai it has skyrocketed to over 300 in a week.
“Congestion in Shanghai tends to be worse at this time of year. However, the recent increase is much higher than both last year and the season,” the company said in a statement.
Now, at the end of April, the average wait time at the puerto Chinese for ships is 14 days.
As thousands of containers are piling up at the port of Shanghai, putting the global supply chain at risk once more, which will imply a reduction in the supply of various products and an increase in their prices.
The BBC indicates that the main exported products through Shanghai include washing machines, vacuum cleaners, solar panels, electronic components and textiles.
“Temporary shortages might be evident for these products, as the export via Shanghai accounts for 30% to 50% of China’s total exports of these products,” Kerley said.
According to Alicia García-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at investment bank Natixis, there is concern that this too has a inflationary impact in the world, including Latin America, which is a major trading partner of China.
For his part, Rodrigo Zeidan, Professor of Economics and Finance at NYU Shanghai, argues that this will mean that the prices of many goods will take some time to stabilize.
Zeidan warns that although there is demand for China Of all the raw materials that it imports from Latin America, shipments will not be easy to make.
“This is already happening. Shipping rates are staying absurdly high for a long time and in fact, prices They’re going up,” he added.
Given this, the experts Bank of America They believe that the most severe impact is likely to be seen during the month of April and last until at least the end of the second quarter of this 2022.
