The coronavirus has significantly affected supply chain management and cargo volumes. With many factories still closed, truckers still under quarantine and road travel restricted, ocean carriers have cancelled roughly 35 sailings.

All regional government bodies are strictly controlling factory work. Currently only 50% of the factories resumed work in February. “The rest may return to some level of normalcy beginning early March,” according to Steve Liu in our Shanghai office.

Many port cities including Shanghai, Qingdao, Xiamen, and others now require truck drivers to be quarantined until February 24th, so the container loading at factories will not return to normal until then and the slowdown may extend until March because as there are no signs that the outbreak is under control, according to Liu.

The government is also restricting road access so even if factories resume work, there are limited drivers and little access.

We will continue to update our customers and we appreciate your support during this time. Please do not hesitate to contact your WWL representative at any time.