The largest city in China, Shanghai, remains in full lockdown as authorities try to contain yet another wave of COVID-19. Those lockdowns have led to a major backlog of cargo and container ships around the Port of Shanghai—the busiest container port in the world. Last year, over 47 million 20-foot equivalent units (unit of measure for container sizes) were handled there. For perspective, the largest container port in Europe, Rotterdam, had only 15.3 million TEUs. U.S. trucking giant JB Hunt expects the delays that Shanghai is experiencing to spread to the US West Coast by July. Shelley Simpson, chief commercial officer stated, “We do forecast that [shipping delays] to get a lot worse as we come into the summer months.” (Chart by statista.com)
Jeffrey Cerny