Coronavirus: China’s ports reach ‘turning point’ as Covid-19 backlog clears

Crane operators, customs officers, tugboat pilots and other key logistics links have began to slot into place after lockdowns across the country had led to congestion

China is the largest container cargo handler – processing around 30 per cent of global traffic or around 715,000 containers a day in 2019

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The average wait time for container vessels at Zhoushan in southern China – the third-largest container port in the world by annual handling capacity – spiked to more than 60 hours in the second week of February. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 4:39pm, 27 Feb 2020Updated: 4:39pm, 27 Feb 2020

China’s top container ports are loosening the backlog of cargo on their docks as workers return after coronavirus travel curbs that kept them away and jammed up global supply chains have been eased.

The flu-like epidemic, which originated in the city of Wuhan, an inland logistics hub in Hubei province, has killed more that 2,700 and infected over 78,000 in China alone, and caused massive port congestion due to labour shortages caused by city lockdowns across the country.

China is the largest container cargo handler – processing around 30 per cent of global traffic or around 715,000 containers a day in 2019 – and the virus clampdown impacted supply chains of everything from trainers and machine parts to technology components and food items.

The average wait time for container vessels at Zhoushan in southern China – the third-largest container port in the world by annual handling capacity – spiked to more than 60 hours in the second week of February, when travel curbs on workers returning from the prolonged Lunar New Year holiday forced ports to operate with skeleton staffing.

That was around 15 hours longer than the week before the holiday, and nearly 20 hours more than the average in early January before the travel restrictions, according to Shanghai International Shipping Institute (SISI) data.