Prime Freight’s summary of a July 2022 report by The Loadstar. Read the original for the full story.
In July 2022, only five weeks after Shanghai came out of its two-month lockdown, mass testing in several districts revived fears of new restrictions just as peak season approached.
Officials said testing was meant to prevent another citywide lockdown, though critics noted that testing had usually come before tighter rules. UBS expected rolling mini-lockdowns rather than citywide shutdowns for the rest of the year. Bloomberg estimated that up to 30 million people in China were under some form of restriction, with Henan and Guangzhou as hot spots.
Zencargo said cases had not yet affected shipments but warned that local lockdowns could worsen port congestion. Average waiting time to berth at Shanghai had doubled from 12 to 24 hours, typhoons had disrupted Ningbo, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and fog had pushed waits at Qingdao to 48–96 hours. Spot rates were falling: the Asia–US West Coast rate, at about $7,300 per 40ft, was less than half its late-April level, which analysts linked to weaker demand, although Zencargo thought peak-season congestion could push rates back up.
What it meant for shippers
Mid-2022 combined easing rates with lingering disruption. Cheaper space did not guarantee reliable schedules, so origin-port conditions still needed watching.