Air cargo shipments in and out of Shanghai Pudong airport have been effectively shut down, with bonded trucking services suspended and most flights canceled as China’s busiest air cargo hub struggles to clear a fast-growing freight backlog since a COVID-19 lockdown was imposed on Monday.To get more shanghai airport latest news, you can visit shine news official website.
Most of the airport’s arrival and departure flights were listed as canceled on its website Thursday. And with tough restrictions on trucking operations in and around the city expected to remain in place through next week, the freight bottlenecks are building.
“Provided the situation goes back to normal by April 6 we will be looking at around 10-14 days to clear the backlog and to get up to speed again,” Claus Nicolajsen, vice president for air and ocean products in Asia Pacific at forwarder DSV.
The lockdown has effectively paralyzed the busiest air cargo airport in the world’s largest air freight market. An example of the volume being affected by the lockdown can be found in the monthly statistics provided by Shanghai Pudong’s main air cargo terminal PACTL, which handles 95 percent of the airport’s volume.
In January and February this year, the terminal handled almost 250,000 tons of cargo, 92 percent of which was international import-export. While the March volume is not yet available, in March 2021 the terminal handled 172,000 tons. For the full year 2021, 1.7 million tons crossed the airport’s busy apron.
Estimating the volume being delayed by the COVID-19 measures was difficult, Nicolajsen said, but from an industry standpoint it could be as much as 5,000 tons, equivalent to 50 Boeing 747 freighters. And while that would also take up to two weeks to clear, new production volume would also come into the mix.
“The concern will be if the lockdown is being extended … then the market will be further challenged,” he said. “Major airlines have canceled certain flights into and out of [Shanghai Pudong] and the logistics around reinstalling these flights is not going to be solved overnight when getting the green light from the Chinese government.”Most of the air cargo flying out of Shanghai Pudong is from manufacturing areas outside the city and must be trucked in, and the suspension of these road feeder services resulted in a flurry of customer advisories from global forwarders.
“Cargo cannot reach [Shanghai Pudong],” Kuehne + Nagel warned customers Thursday. “Nearly no cargo can be delivered to terminals located within the Shanghai area or outside Shanghai.”
It is believed cargo already in the terminals and cleared through customs can be flown out, although on Tuesday this week just 28 flights arrived or departed from Shanghai.
Dachser noted in an advisory that export flights from Shanghai Pudong have been restricted, the export gateway has been closed, and the handover of freight has been suspended with the restrictions expected to be in place for seven to 14 days.
France-based forwarder Geodis advised that bonded trucking services into Shanghai Pudong airport were discontinued on March 31 to allow the terminal “to clear backlogs caused by COVID restrictions severely limiting recovery of cargo in Shanghai.”
Crane Worldwide Logistics said the PACTL terminal has suspended the acceptance of refrigerated and frozen cargo “until further notice” as all temperature-controlled warehouses are full, and consignees are unable to collect the cargo.
Air cargo shipments in and out of Shanghai Pudong airport have been effectively shut down, with bonded trucking services suspended and most flights canceled as China’s busiest air cargo hub struggles to clear a fast-growing freight backlog since a COVID-19 lockdown was imposed on Monday.To get more shanghai airport latest news, you can visit shine news official website.
Most of the airport’s arrival and departure flights were listed as canceled on its website Thursday. And with tough restrictions on trucking operations in and around the city expected to remain in place through next week, the freight bottlenecks are building.
“Provided the situation goes back to normal by April 6 we will be looking at around 10-14 days to clear the backlog and to get up to speed again,” Claus Nicolajsen, vice president for air and ocean products in Asia Pacific at forwarder DSV.
The lockdown has effectively paralyzed the busiest air cargo airport in the world’s largest air freight market. An example of the volume being affected by the lockdown can be found in the monthly statistics provided by Shanghai Pudong’s main air cargo terminal PACTL, which handles 95 percent of the airport’s volume.
In January and February this year, the terminal handled almost 250,000 tons of cargo, 92 percent of which was international import-export. While the March volume is not yet available, in March 2021 the terminal handled 172,000 tons. For the full year 2021, 1.7 million tons crossed the airport’s busy apron.
Estimating the volume being delayed by the COVID-19 measures was difficult, Nicolajsen said, but from an industry standpoint it could be as much as 5,000 tons, equivalent to 50 Boeing 747 freighters. And while that would also take up to two weeks to clear, new production volume would also come into the mix.
“The concern will be if the lockdown is being extended … then the market will be further challenged,” he said. “Major airlines have canceled certain flights into and out of [Shanghai Pudong] and the logistics around reinstalling these flights is not going to be solved overnight when getting the green light from the Chinese government.”Most of the air cargo flying out of Shanghai Pudong is from manufacturing areas outside the city and must be trucked in, and the suspension of these road feeder services resulted in a flurry of customer advisories from global forwarders.
“Cargo cannot reach [Shanghai Pudong],” Kuehne + Nagel warned customers Thursday. “Nearly no cargo can be delivered to terminals located within the Shanghai area or outside Shanghai.”
It is believed cargo already in the terminals and cleared through customs can be flown out, although on Tuesday this week just 28 flights arrived or departed from Shanghai.
Dachser noted in an advisory that export flights from Shanghai Pudong have been restricted, the export gateway has been closed, and the handover of freight has been suspended with the restrictions expected to be in place for seven to 14 days.
France-based forwarder Geodis advised that bonded trucking services into Shanghai Pudong airport were discontinued on March 31 to allow the terminal “to clear backlogs caused by COVID restrictions severely limiting recovery of cargo in Shanghai.”
Crane Worldwide Logistics said the PACTL terminal has suspended the acceptance of refrigerated and frozen cargo “until further notice” as all temperature-controlled warehouses are full, and consignees are unable to collect the cargo.