Shenzhen COVID lockdown will add pressure to global supply chains
The Chinese city of Shenzhen is a significant technology manufacturing centre producing everything from iPhones to electric vehicle battery cells.
Although the lockdown is planned to only last one week, the knock-on effect of lost production, rising cases, hospitalisation and testing of the city's 17.5 million residents will likely lead to global supply chain issues over the coming months.
Yantian Port is already under pressure
Shenzhen's Yantian Port is the world's fourth-largest, and a COVID outbreak in June 2021 put a major strain on a port that had already stopped accepting export containers for a short period in May 2021 due to a significant COVID outbreak amongst port workers. This latest lockdown piles the pressure on an already strained supply chain.
KC Group Shipping, Head of Sales Sarahjane Low commented: "There is no doubt how important Shenzhen is to the world's economy. We have already seen issues before now and have been working strategically with clients to help minimise their supply chain issues, but this COVID lockdown combined with a freight bottleneck at Yantian will cause problems over the coming months."
Sarahjane continued: "Our global Liner agency partnerships give us the ability to work with customers to help find alternative solutions where possible, but with no cargo able to load in Yantian from next week, even a week-long shutdown will have a huge knock-on effect."
Due to the lockdown, trucks holding manufactured goods and components cannot enter the city this week, which could cause further delays even after the authorities lift the lockdown. The overall effect on the global supply chain is likely to cause more problems than the Suez Canal container ship stranding.
Dachan Bay Terminal, in the west of Shenzhen, is currently still in full operation at the time of writing, with several of our Liner Agency partners operating to and from Dachan Bay.
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