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China’s financial capital imposes four-day lockdown on eastern half of city; western half follows on April 1
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Shipping industry concerned about the shutdown exacerbating congestion at the world’s biggest port, but liners have no reaction so far
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Chip-makers based in Pudong such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, China’s largest chip-maker, and Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd say operations are continuing
Shanghai, China’s financial capital and largest port city, began a staggered lockdown today, March 28, its biggest city-wide suspension since the COVID-19 outbreak began more than two years ago to try to contain the spread of the Omicron variant.
Shipping industry analysts and observers have been predicting that a lockdown in Shanghai would further aggravate congestion at China’s largest cargo port, which handled 47 million TEUs (20ft equivalent units) last year.
Ocean liners have not yet reacted so far to the imposition of the lockdown in Shanghai, which has seen growing ship queues for the past few months partly due to congestion at major ports of the United States that has affected shipping schedules at its trade partners.
Shanghai authorities made a major U-turn and ordered a vast swathe of the city of 25 million into a lockdown from Monday after a spike in the number of infections to 2,678 on Saturday, an increase of 60 from last Friday.
They published the instructions on the city’s WeChat account, asking the public “to support, understand and cooperate with the city’s epidemic prevention and control work”.
The city government said that from 5am the Pudong New Area, a 1,200 sq km zone on the eastern bank of the Huangpu River and home to about 5.7 million people, would lock down for four days of mass testing.
Several establishments inside the business park have suspended operations as new cases of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 surged, according to reports from Shanghai.
Big chip companies based in Pudong such as Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp, the country’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, and Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd said in reply to media inquiries that operations are still running normally.
The Shanghai municipal government also announced late Sunday that Jinshan, Fengxian and Chongming districts as well as part of Minhang must also go into a lockdown from 5am Monday.
Shanghai and Jilin have been the areas hardest hit by the outbreak of the new wave of infections, which took off in early March.
Authorities had so far resisted a lockdown to avoid destabilizing the economy, but this was before Shanghai recorded its highest daily number of cases on Saturday since the pandemic began in November 2019.
On Sunday night, authorities announced the eastern side of the city will come under restrictions from Monday until 1 April, and the western side from April 1 to 5.
They said public transport will be suspended and firms and factories must halt operations or work remotely.
Other lockdowns during the pandemic have affected entire Chinese provinces, though people could often still travel within those regions. But Shanghai, due to its high population density, is the largest single city to be locked down to date.
Officials had until now said the eastern Chinese port and financial hub must keep running for the good of the economy. The staggered approach to this lockdown means half the city will remain functioning at a time.
