Demand for shipping refrigerated goods to Shanghai recovers as lockdown set to end on May 20

Just as Shanghai was about to lift its lockdown order on May 20, shipping lines said that they would restore bookings of reefer containers imported to Shanghai port - the world's largest container port.

Port of Shanghai

Port of Shanghai (Photo: Xu Congjun/AP/Ritzau Scanpix)

Shanghai deputy-mayor Wu Qing said at a press conference on May 13 that the city would gradually lift movement restrictions between May 11 and 20, nearly two months after the lockdown began.

Maersk Line said in a statement that refrigerated containers shipped after the lockdown are expected to arrive in Shanghai from June 26 onwards.

Freight forwarder Geodis said that LCL (less-than-container load) operators have resumed operations to and from Shanghai.

CMA CGM noted that while all Shanghai ports have fully resumed unloading of imported refrigerated and special cargo containers, the Waigaoqiao port area is still affected due to insufficient manpower, especially station 2 continues to have to wait for a long time.

Since mid-April, Shanghai has allowed about 2,000 major manufacturing plants to resume production under the white list. These manufacturing plants have to enforce a so-called "closed-loop" system that involves workers mostly sleeping on site to avoid contact with outsiders.

However, the whitelisting has not yet alleviated the damage caused by production disruptions, Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce, told Hong Kong media the number of companies allowed to resume operations just "a drop of in the ocean".

The American Chamber of Commerce said that as of May 5, only 15% of the US companies on the white list had continued to operate in Shanghai, citing restrictions on constraints on the ability to provide cross-city road transport services.

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