Shanghai congestion holds steady – but strike impacts stoke bottleneck fears

Congestion at Shanghai has remained at normal levels in spite of the latest lockdown imposed on the city last week.

Shanghai only re-merged last week from two months of lockdown, following a rise in Omicron cases in early April.

According to the latest date from VesselsValue, average waiting times for Tankers, Bulkers, and Containerships at the busy port peaked in late April at 65 hours.

Since then, waiting times have been steadily reverting to the levels experienced at the time of year over recent years. Despite 13 of the city’s 16 districts reimposing lockdown earlier this week, congestion is now back within normal levels.

Average waiting times for Containerships peaked at 69 hours at the height of the Omicron wave in late April. They have since reduced back down to last year’s levels and are currently trending around 34 hours and falling.

As much of Shanghai re enters lockdown, factors such as staff absences that caused congestion to rise in early April do not appear to be such a significant problem this time, VesselsValue noted.

The analysis firm added that, conversely, labour strikes in Germany are beginning to lengthen waiting times at Bremerhaven and Wilhelmsen – though not yet at Hamburg.

VesselsValue data is as of 15 June 2022.