Shanghai’s logistics industry revels in chaotic boom as rates soar, ‘dreads’ the arrival of coronavirus vaccine
- Pandemic has upset the industry fundamentals, pushing some air freight rates up fourfold this year
- Industry executives say the decline in volume of masks, hospital equipment and medical devices will be replaced by other goods as the world returns to normal
Chen Monian was transporting cartons of personal protective equipment (PPE) from a container truck to a cargo terminal at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport when the watch showed it was time to clock out.
During that pause in a late April shift, he recalls, he thought it was probably the busiest day of his eight-year working life as a forklift driver with Shanghai-based firm Jiujin Logistics.
“The volumes of masks, hospital equipment and medical devices bound for all over the world created a hectic scene like never before,” he said. “You cannot imagine how strong the business was like at that time.”
The air freight chart captures those hectic months Chen described as “chaotic” – as airlines cancelled flights and took out the cargo space in their bellies along the way, upending the fundamental balance in the logistics industry.