China is currently facing its largest COVID outbreak since the pandemic initially broke out in 2020. Despite its success combating the virus with a “zero-tolerance” policy thus far, the Chinese government has been unable to contain the highly contagious Omicron variant sweeping across the country in recent weeks.

In response to the rapid spike in infection clusters, the government has enacted lockdown restrictions and measures in the following areas:

• Shenzhen
• Shanghai
• Xiamen
• Nanjing
• Tianjin
• Dalian

While ports and airports remain open at this time, local trucking availability has been affected by sudden factory closures and at-home lockdowns for citizens. This has, in turn, led to a surge in blank sailings and capacity reductions.

Shippers should expect potential cargo delays and congestion as a result of the lockdowns.

Shapiro is closely following the situation and will provide status updates as they become available.