SIMIC

The Chinese coastal city, home to some of the world's busiest sea and airports, began locking down half of the city on Monday and intends to do the same to the other half for four days starting Friday in a two-stage testing exercise, reports Reuters.

While it has kept its airports and deepwater port open, it has imposed stringent movement curbs, barring unapproved vehicles from streets and telling millions of people not to leave their homes.

"Trucking service in and out (of) Shanghai will be severely impacted by 30 per cent due to a full lockdown on Shanghai's Pudong and Puxi areas in turn until April 5," Maersk, the world's second-largest container shipping company, said in an advisory to clients on Monday.

It added that warehouses in Shanghai would be closed until Friday. "Consequently, there will be longer delivery time and a possible rise in transport costs such as detour fee and highway fee."

SEKO Logistics, a US-based freight transport and warehousing company, said factories in the neighbouring province of Zhejiang were opting to move cargo out of Ningbo's port, rather than Shanghai.

"We are anticipating: a sharp increase in air freight rates. We have already received some sky-high offers for enquires to Europe so far," it said on its website.

China is battling its largest number of Covid-19 infections since the onset of the country's initial outbreak receded in early 2020.

Meanwhile, a survey conducted by a state newspaper found Shenzhen's "war" on COVID-19 has hurt up to 93 per cent of local small and medium-sized companies, with many suffering production disruptions because of shutdowns, interruptions in supply chains, and delays in order executions.