China’s coronavirus (Covid-19) is significantly eroding US throughput volumes at its primary Pacific ports at a time when the ongoing tariff standoff between the two countries is easing following frequent trade talks between Beijing and Washington.
Early gains made by the appeasement efforts of the administrations of Xi Jinping and Donald Trump now appear to be in jeopardy as China increasingly finds itself isolated as Covid-19 appears to be spreading unabated. Morocco, Algeria and Senegal are the latest African countries to record cases of infection.
At last count more than 3000 people across the globe, with the vast majority of them in China, had succumbed to the virus.
Recent figures by America’s western seaboard ports also underscore the notion that the global supply chain picture is heading into a bleak period considering what’s happening on the US Pacific shore, widely held to be a barometer of the world’s freight industry.
The Port of Los Angeles expects to release its weakest cargo figures for February since its congestion issues in 2015, with volumes expected to dip by up to 25%.
Since 11 February the port has recorded 40 cancelled sailings, many of them having been scheduled between now and 21 March.
Thus far the port is looking at a 20% depreciation of vessel callings but this figure is expected to increase as cancellations from Covid-19 slowly curve upwards.
The Port of Long Beach has also been hit hard by volumes edging down, with 12% fewer containers moving through the port for the months of January and February.
The port’s managing director for commercial operations, Noel Hacegaba, estimates that the volume depreciation for the first months of 2020 represents a $12-billion loss in trade.
According to a US container portal, the average of around 75 trains leaving Long Beach daily has also been halved. The same goes for the amount of trucks visiting the port.
Hacegaba said this figure had gone down from 16 000 trucks every day to 8000.
The knock-on effect of Covid-19 on American supply chain volume is expected to dominate discussion during a trans-Pacific container conference that is currently under way at Long Beach. – Eugene Goddard
