According to Tim Huxley (founder of Mandarin Shipping), the Covid situation is improving in China and the industry’s container shipping could see an “incredibly strong” pick-up starting late April.Street Signs AsiaOn Monday.

Shanghai has been on lockdown since last month because of a rise in Covid-19 cases. Later, the city that is also home to one of the busiest container ports in the world, was hit with a breakdown in the logistics supply chain.

Huxley explained that “the port itself has actually stayed opened so ships are actually coming into it, but it’s also getting cargo to the port.”

China’s worst pandemic since early 2020 has seen a rapid increase in Covid cases. This is the result of a large number of Covid patients in China. China has placed strict rules on trucks entering Shanghai as the largest city, and the one that was most severely affected by the latest outbreak. Transporting goods into and out of Shanghai has become more costly and less efficient because of these restrictions.

Huxley claimed that Shanghai is well-equipped with supply chains, and delivers “just-in time”. Huxley stated that when there is disruption in supply chain, factories are quick to shut down and that this has led to “big stress”.

Huxley stated that the queue for container ships at major Chinese ports such as Shanghai is getting longer every day and many vessels aren’t even making it to Shanghai right now.

The global economy has been plagued by supply chain disruptions since the initial stages of the pandemic. This is due to lockdowns, consumer behavior changes, and more recently the “Global Pandemic” Russia-Ukraine warThese are just a few of the many factors.

Although it may be a while before things return to normal, Huxley believes there is “considerable comfort” in China’s quick recovery from the 2020 Covid lockdown.  

“As a consequence, we then had a strongest surge in container freight prices and container shipping demands in history,” he said.

“This time — we don’t know obviously — but there is clearly going to be huge amounts of pent-up demand, both with factories returning to work and with getting these exports and manufactured goods out again,” Huxley said.