Eps 1: Truckers Stranded on the Highway After Shanghai's Lockdown
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Roy Vasquez
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Shanghai, a city of 25 million people and one of China's largest manufacturing and export hubs, is under a citywide lockdown indefinitely. Since April 1st, 25 million Shanghai residents have effectively been stuck in the city. The situation in Shanghai attracted attention, at least 45 cities in China would be completely or partially blocked.
For those recruited in Shanghai, things have become extremely difficult. On Monday, the US State Department ordered some employees and their family members to leave Shanghai due to a citywide quarantine and restrictions put in place to contain the shot. Officials denied for weeks that they would impose a general quarantine on Shanghai.
Shanghai, home to the world's largest container shipping port, began a two-part lockdown on March 28, but has yet to announce when the restrictions will be tightened. Several shipping lines have announced that they will miss terminals in Shanghai due to traffic restrictions, which Seko said will exacerbate congestion at two Shanghai container terminals once the restrictions are lifted.
Limited truck access to Shanghai's port terminals is causing containers to pile up and ship traffic to slow down. Rerouting cargo to avoid a lengthy lockdown in Shanghai, where the number of confirmed daily COVID-19 cases hit a record 17,000 this week, is getting more difficult and expensive this week as cargo facilities in other Chinese cities are overcrowded, logistics companies warn and carriers.
Truck drivers trying to get out of Shanghai spoke of waiting hours for medical checks, 100-kilometer detours and lengthy quarantines after trips, among other problems. Truck drivers said it was very difficult to leave Shanghai even before the current lockdown. Shanghai officials said they would ensure uninterrupted logistics, but a number of drivers were not allowed to leave their compounds.
When Mr. Wei arrived in Shanghai on March 29, his destination wholesale market was closed, and Mr. Wei and two other truck drivers had nowhere to unload nearly 100 tons of potatoes. On March 28, he and two other truck drivers were ordered to transport nearly 100 tons of potatoes from Shandong province to Shanghai.
Liu said he collected some goods in Shanghai and traveled to Suzhou, Jiangsu province on March 16, where he waited more than five hours at the expressway exit for inspection. Lu told Sanlian Life Weekly that without the new crown policy, he might have arrived in Shanghai on March 28. On March 11, another driver claimed on the video streaming platform Kuaishou that he was not allowed to leave the expressway during the 100-kilometer journey from Shanghai port to Taicang.
Last week, state media reported that a truck driver spent seven days in his truck after traveling to Shanghai. I was stranded in Shanghai for 12 days and didn't know when I would be able to leave," Wei, a truck driver, told the state-run China Entrepreneur magazine, who was locked in the street with two peers without necessities.
He added that few cities in neighboring provinces allow trucks from Shanghai to enter. Shanghai put residents of its apartments in an indefinite city-wide quarantine and also required truck drivers to be tested for COVID-19 before entering the city. Shanghai locked down half of the city from Monday and intends to conduct the same two-phase test on the other half over four days starting on Friday.
The lockdown on China's largest city, Shanghai, has been extended to cover the city's entire population of more than 25 million as the global trade hub battles the worst COVID-19 outbreak in China since the pandemic began more than two years ago. Empty streets during the COVID-19 quarantine in Shanghai, China's largest city and world trade center, on April 5, 2022. A worker in a protective suit walks at the entrance of a tunnel to the Pudong area on the other side of the Huangpu River. , March 28, 2022, after traffic restrictions were imposed on a highway during a lockdown in Shanghai, China, to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease . After weeks of very difficult Covid-19 lockdown, some people in Shanghai, China, China were allowed to leave some people in their houses in Shanghai.
SHANGHAI, April 13 - China's push to stop the spread of COVID-19 is clogging highways and ports, locking out workers and shutting down countless factories - disruptions that spread through global supply chains for goods ranging from cars to iPhones. SHANGHAI - Danish shipping company Maersk said the Shanghai lockdown will severely damage shipping services and increase transportation costs as China's intensified efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 further shake global supply chains. With Shanghai closing in half, factories in eastern China are facing a wave of canceled and delayed deliveries.
Bettina Schon-Behanzin noted that people living in lockdown in Shanghai had to wake up at 4am to compete for an online delivery of vegetables. Some drivers were stuck on the highway after visiting areas like Shanghai, which meant their smartphone health codes were automatically cancelled.
The Shanghai International Ports Group said in a statement Saturday that the ability of ships to reach designated points of unloading or loading cargo was more efficient than last year as a whole. The number of container ships waiting outside Shanghai - the world's busiest container port - and nearby Zhoushan has more than doubled since early April to 118, according to data from Refinitiv, almost three times as many as a year ago.