As the coronavirus outbreak persists, our thoughts are with our customers, colleagues and their families across the world. On February 4, 2020, the WHO (World Health Organization) officials advised that the coronavirus outbreak is not a pandemic and added that they are hopeful the transmission of the virus can be contained. Additional regions have extended the Chinese New Year holiday through February 9. The following is a current list of the 14 cities and provinces that have extended the holiday:

Beijing Municipality (BJS)
Shanghai Municipality (SHA)
Chongqing Municipality (CKG)
Tianjin Municipality (TSN)
Jiangsu Province (SZV, WUX)
Guangdong Province (CAN, SZX)
Fujian Province (XMN)
Jiangxi Province
Shandong Province (TAO)
Anhui Province
Zhejiang Province (NGB)Zhejiang Province (Wenzhou, Taizhou and Hangzhou until Feb. 17)
Liaoning Province (SHE)
Hubei Province (until Feb. 17)

Ocean Updates:

Ocean carriers and terminals remain operational (except for Wuhan). The ocean carriers are advising that their teams are managing operations from home via email and phone and expect to be fully operational on February 10.
Several carriers have announced that free time for containers at their China terminals will be extended until February 9.
Backlog and delays are expected to increase with trucking companies advising that it will depend on how soon their workers are able to return to work.
Ocean carriers are announcing additional void sailings across all trades and services. As mentioned in our last update, the extended shutdown impacts both ocean and air cargo rates. It is typical to see a post Chinese New Year cargo rush due to rollover cargo that missed shipping prior to the holiday in addition to the new shipments trying to ship out. With the current holiday extended to February 10, this will create an even larger backlog which will push rates up, and delays should be expected.
For the USA export market, we expect to see container/equipment shortages at key export container yards due to a lack of inbound containers/equipment which will impact export supply chains.

Air Updates:

Dozens of countries have restricted travel to/from China.

Singapore, Australia, Indonesia and the U.S. have all banned entry of non-citizens who have traveled to China within the past 14 days.
Philippines issued a temporary travel ban on visitors from China, Hong Kong and Macau.
American Airlinesand United Airlines are suspending all flights to and from Hong Kong.
Russian cargo airline AirBridgeCargo (ABC) is the first pure all cargo carrier to cut all scheduled flights from Europe to China.
LH Cargo announced a very restricted flight schedule to China (no change to HKG).

Airlines who have canceled, reduced or suspended flights on certain routes to China:

Noatum Logistics is working with our ocean and air carriers to minimize the expected space and capacity issues and backlog. We will continue to send additional alerts as we receive updates.

For more information, please contact your local Noatum Logistics (formerly MIQ Logistics) representative.