Latest Updates – Coronavirus and the Situation in China

The latest reports coming out of China don’t look very positive. So far, more than 200 people have succumbed to death and close to 9700 are confirmed to have this infection. WHO have declared this as an International Emergency.

Our partners in China are working from home to limit physical contact, given that this virus is contagious. They have advised that the on ground situation isn’t very good either. Hospitals are full of patients and there are no quick ways to test if a person is free of this virus.

Officially, the reopening schedule after the extended Chinese New Year Holidays is as follows:

• Wuhan to Resume work on 13^th – Our partner suggests that the situation is pretty bad and the city is already blocked. It looks highly unlikely that normal operations will resume by this official date.
• Shanghai/Shenzhen/Chongqing to resume work on 10^th February. They think this is workable.
• Qingdao/Tianjin/Dalian to resume work on 3^rd February. According to them, this looks impractical.

We have also heard from Freight and Trade Alliance here in Australia that the overall situation will also impact Australian ports because of operational issues like difficulties with cargo processing because of the lack of relevant paper work e.g. Chinese Certificate of Origins as a result of extended periods of closure in China. They also think that the Chinese Government may extend the holiday even further up until 15th to tackle with this emergency, although this is not confirmed yet.