Due to the rapidly spreading Coronavirus, the Chinese government has announced the extension of the Chinese New Year holiday to February 2nd and many of the municipal governments are extending the holiday until February 9thThe following. areas have extended the holiday: Shanghai, Guangdong Province, Fujian Province, Zhejiang Province and Jiangsu Province.
As of now, all ocean terminals and customs in China remain open. All ocean carriers, brokers and freight forwarders will continue working remotely from home and continue placing bookings to carriers and arranging customs clearances as normal.
The government’s cross traffic closures may affect shipments inbound and outbound throughout the affected areas. There may be a shortage of truckers and warehouse staff because they may be restricted from leaving a closed province or unable to cross closed borders.
Wuhan is at completely shut down until further notice with no traffic in and out of the city and all domestic public transportations suspended until further notice. Wuhan is an important supply chain hub with roughly 500 factories and other facilities. Plants for many auto and transportation industries are located here as well as large corporations such as Siemens AG and PepsiCo Inc.
Chinese government is doing everything possible to try to contain this virus, and, if conditions decline, other additional extreme measures could be deployed.
For Worldwide Logistics, ensuring the safety and health of all our employees is a priority. We are allowing our employees in China to work from home with only a limited number of employees attending the office. All our offices (Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Shanghai, Qingdao) in Greater China will reopen on February 10th.
We will continue to update our customers as changes develop.