China’s Covid-19 lockdowns wreak logistics havoc and slow global supply chains
- Logistics operators and exporters face delays in delivering cargo domestically and overseas amid travel restrictions
- China’s truck traffic has dropped 40 per cent since mid-March, while truck movement around Shanghai is down to 15 per cent of its normal level
China’s strict Covid-19 lockdowns and travel restrictions have created a nightmare for the country’s logistics operators, who are desperate to get cargo to ports and across borders, as exporters race to meet delivery deadlines.
Liu Sanhong, a salesman at Haiwei Logistics in the coastal province of Shandong, said his days have never been so hard and unpredictable.
He recently sent a truck to deliver some cargo from Linyi city to the port of Qingdao, normally a four-hour drive on highways. This time, however, the journey took two days and the driver missed the ship’s departure. Liu then deployed another truck to Linyi, but this driver got stuck on the highway for so long that his negative Covid-19 test, which was only valid for 24 hours, expired. He returned with an empty container.
“China is the world’s manufacturing floor, but when the logistics are broken, raw materials cannot get in, shipments cannot get out, the impact is enormous,” Liu said. “We are paying a higher price this time than during the Wuhan lockdown. Back then, it was only one city, but this time the whole supply chain is being affected.”
Liu’s ordeal is not an isolated case in China’s logistics service industry, which has been inundated by draconian lockdowns since March that have become a new normal in many parts of the country, after Shanghai started to confine virtually all residents at home more than two weeks ago.