Singular Journal - Securities house

The port of Shanghai in a maritime traffic jam

For weeks now, the port of Shanghai has been full of containers parked on the quay. Since the end of March, China's most important port has been technically at a standstill, and all this because Shanghai, a city of more than 25 million people, is in the most difficult confinement in years.

The effects of this maritime bottleneck of supply chains are already being felt in a number of industries, last week the Shanghai stock market plunged 5% and the Chinese economy as a whole is starting to slow its growth.

Political problems caused by the war in Ukraine, an expanding pandemic could bring further consequences.

1 in 5 cargo ships in the world is waiting to disembark at the port of Shanghai. In total we are talking about some 2,000 vessels and the number of vessels in queue has doubled in recent weeks.

The problem is not at sea, but on land. Once the containers are unloaded, they remain on the dock for many days because the city is empty. There are currently no carriers to distribute the goods because of the strict confinement maintained by the city.

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