Shanghai Port Rebounds To Pre-Covid Trade Figures

Shanghai Port has broken its own Container Traffic record for July as it saw 3.9 million TEU pass through its terminals, according to figures from the Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG). Traffic increased year-on-year (YoY) 1.2% and 7.6% on June’s traffic, which suggests the Port might have recovered from the trade uncertainty partially caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Shanghai Port – China’s Busiest Port

Shanghai Port handled over 40 million TEU in 2018. February 2020 was the height of the pandemic for traffic in China and the Port handled 2.2 million TEU, its lowest traffic for that month since 2014 when the world was in the middle of the oil glut crisis, and a substantial fall from the 3.6 million it handled in January. Shanghai port has become integrated with the Belt & Road Initiative and especially with serves offered by the nearby Lingang Free Trade Zone.

The outbreak and subsequent pandemic caused a substantial shock to China’s ports and has since led to congestion and chaos at many of the world’s busiest gateways, in particular the United States.

The situation also put a large number of China’s biggest Belt & Road Initiative infrastructure projects under time delays, with neither supplies or personnel able to reach destinations for several weeks. However, data released by the China Ministry of Transport last month shows that although traffic had fallen by 5.4% YoY in the first half of 2020, the overall trend of falling trade volumes has stopped.

Dezan Shira & Associates, the practice behind China Belt & Road Initiative intelligence, assist foreign investors into China and have a large office in Shanghai.

Dalian Port was the worst affected of China’s Major Ports, with a 31.6% crash in TEU traffic YoY between January and June 2020 as its major clients, Russia, Japan and South Korea all sealed their borders.

Related Reading

• Why the Shanghai FTZ Will be Key to the City’s Post-COVID Recovery
• China Development Bank To Provide Financial Support To Belt & Road Projects Affected By Covid-19