The partial closure of one of the world’s largest shipping ports, due to an identified COVID-19 case among workers, has raised concerns about the impact of this restriction on global trade, according to the BBC.
Services have been shut down at a terminal in the port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, China, after a worker was infected with the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Ningbo-Zhoushan, in eastern China, is the third busiest shipping port in the world, after Shanghai and Singapore.
The shutdown threatens to disrupt supply chains ahead of the Christmas shopping season as it will reduce port capacity by about a quarter.
According to the global Freightos Baltic Index, a benchmark for major shipping routes, the cost of moving China and Southeast Asia to the East Coast of the United States has already hit a new record, and some British companies are already feeling much higher shipping pressure. costs.
Speaking to the BBC’s Asia Business Report, Jason Sheng of Ocean Shipping Consultants explained that the global shipping industry will likely feel the impact of the pandemic for a few more months.
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