The City of Shenzhen, China, is beginning a week-long lockdown due to high cases of the Omicron variant. The lockdown prevents residents from leaving their homes until Sunday, March 20th – with the only exception being to undergo three rounds of COVID testing. This will affect the world’s third-largest port of Yantian and many of the tech companies who operate from Shenzhen such as Huawei and iPhone manufacturer Foxconn.
Carriers are still trying to navigate how they will deal with this, however, calls at the port will likely be discontinued this week and possibly next, as due to the lockdown, there will be no workforce to move freight, drive trucks and load containers. Analysts say that when Yantian port was shut down due to COVID last year, the disruptive impact on cargo flows was roughly twice the size of the blockage of the Suez Canal.
We will continue to monitor and update you on this situation.
For more information, please call Debbie McGuire, Director – Freight Solutions at (905) 882-4880, ext. 1308.
