Coronavirus Rattles Shipping Industry as Supply Shock Moves to Demand Decline

Source: WSJ Originally published on: 26/03/2020

Container ship operators that canceled more than half their sailings to China, as coronavirus-driven restrictions froze work at its ports last month, are bracing for a second wave of disruption.

Now that China has resumed exporting, shipping companies expect thousands of shipments to be stranded at seaports as the pandemic engulfs the U.S. and Europe.

“In China we had a supply shock, a production shortage from closed factories and reduced truck numbers,” Jeremy Nixon, chief executive of Japan’s Ocean Network Express, the world’s sixth biggest container carrier by capacity, said in an interview. “Now we are looking at a demand side shock which is impacting North America and Europe by the sudden lockdowns of cities.” Full article here