People wearing face masks to help protect from the coronavirus walk by a wall displaying propaganda posters as they head to work at the Central Business District during the morning rush hour
Highlights
- Nearly 400 million people across 45 cities in China are under full or partial lockdown
- The quarantines there have led to food shortages, inability to access medical care among others
- Incoming cargo is now stuck at Shanghai marine terminals for an average of eight days
Nearly 400 million people across 45 cities in China are under full or partial lockdown as part of China’s strict zero-Covid policy. Together, they represent 40 per cent, or $7.2 trillion, of annual gross domestic product for the world’s second-largest economy, according to data from Nomura Holdings, CNN reported.
Analysts are ringing warning bells, but say investors aren’t properly assessing how serious the global economic fallout might be from these prolonged isolation orders. “Global markets may still underestimate the impact, because much attention remains focused on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the US Federal Reserve rate hikes,” Lu Ting, Nomura’s chief China economist, and colleagues wrote in a note last week, CNN reported.
Most alarming is the indefinite lockdown in Shanghai, a city of 25 million and one of China’s premiere manufacturing and export hubs. The quarantines there have led to food shortages, inability to access medical care, and even reported pet killings. The port of Shanghai, which handled over 20 per cent of Chinese freight traffic in 2021, is essentially at a standstill. Food supplies stuck in shipping containers without access to refrigeration are rotting, CNN reported.
Incoming cargo is now stuck at Shanghai marine terminals for an average of eight days before it’s transported elsewhere, a 75 per cent increase since the recent round of lockdowns began. Export storage time has fallen, but that’s likely because no new containers are being sent to the docks from the warehouses, according to supply chain visibility platform Project44. Cargo airlines have cancelled all flights in and out of the city, and more than 90 per cent of trucks supporting import and export deliveries are currently out of action.
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