31 Mar Covid Drives Shanghai Lockdown, Forwarders Suggest Alternative Ports

Suppliers and cargo transports near Shanghai is expected to grind to a halt this week, as China expand limited COVID-19 restrictions into a citywide lockdown on the 26 million residents of Shanghai,

Shanghai COVID lockdown 

Local authorities announced on March-28th, 2022. it would happen in two phases over the next nine days, starting with the eastern side of the city from 5am March-28th.

5:00AM Monday March 28th to 5:00AM Friday April 1st

From 5am on Monday, a lockdown will first be imposed on Pudong, Punan and adjacent areas (including the Pudong New Area, Fengxian, Jinshan and Chongming districts as well as Pujin Subdistrict and Pujiang Town in Minhang District and Xinbang, Shihudang, Maogang and Yexie towns in suburban Songjiang District) to carry out nucleic acid testing. The lockdown here will be lifted at 5am on April 1.

3:00AM Friday April 1st to 3:00AM Tuesday April 5th

In Puxi, the quarantine measures for the key sub districts and towns will continue. Other areas in Puxi will be put under lockdown from 3am on April 1 through 3am on April 5 for nucleic acid testing.

During the lockdown, all residential communities will be closed. All residents are required to stay at home. People and vehicles will only be allowed to enter but not exit the neighborhoods. Meal delivery and courier services will remain operating with non-contact delivery to ensure basic life necessities. Delivery staff won’t be allowed to enter communities.

All local companies within the lockdown areas must conduct closed-door operations or allow staff to work from home. Public service companies, such as those dealing with water, electricity, fuel, gas, communication, transportation, meat and vegetable supplies, however, will continue to operate.

Public transport, including buses, subways, ferries, taxis and online-hailing cars, will also be completely suspended during the lockdown. Only special vehicles, such as those for pandemic prevention or ambulances, will be allowed on local roads in locked-down areas.

The COVID-19 prevention measures will be adjusted according to the evolving pandemic situation, the office noted.

Forwarders said they expected factories to suspend manufacturing, while transport to-and-from the airport and container terminals would be severely limited.

There are major trucking bottlenecks and restrictions not only in Shanghai, but in other cities too.

Container trucks are allowed to go on road in Shanghai with the container EIR (Equipment Interchange Receipt) information and a driver’s negative Covid – test result  (no older than 48 hours).

To leave Shanghai, truck drivers require a PCR test within 48 hours – “if the driver isn’t in lockdown” – and again to re-enter the city.

However, there are still different policies in the cities/provinces shippers are located in. Some provinces/cities are not allowing container trucks from Shanghai to enter, some cities request the shipper to apply for permit and pick up the container truck/truck driver from the highway exit or at the entrance into the city, and some ask drivers to do another Covid test on site at the highway exit before entering into the specific city.

Jiangsu province has its own requirements for entering the province. And then, within Jiangsu, the cities each have their own requirements for entering their territory.

Thus there is no universal answer to the question whether drayage service is available or not. You have to check with the shippers/consignees one by one to understand their local policies and then mutually decide whether we should dispatch the trucks to pick up empty equipment/ loaded import containers and go on road.

Now trucks from outside are not allowed to enter our city ( Xinghua )

For ocean freight shipments over the next few weeks, it is suggest to consider Ningbo port or Qingdao port, especially for LCL shipments that need to go through a CFS.

Furthermore, the lockdown may well be extended beyond 5 April if more Covid cases are uncovered. The current spike is apparently the highest since the virus emerged in Wuhan two years ago.

The shutdown of China’s largest economic hub is the most significant restriction imposed by the government in two years since they locked down Wuhan, where the virus was first detected in late 2019.