It’s been nearly a month since China placed Wuhan – a city of 11 million people in Hubei province – under quarantine on January 23 because of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, which has killed 2,249 people in the country as on February 21 and at least 11 people outside mainland China so far.
The lockdown was subsequently extended to other provinces such as coastal Zhejiang – the worst-hit area after Hubei province – which is home to Ningbo-Zhoushan, China’s busiest port in terms of cargo tonnage, and Wenzhou city, an important commercial and industrial hub.
The quarantine and movement restrictions have also hit our China sourcing team at our Ningbo office, most of whom have spent the last three weeks working from home – minimizing movement outside, painstakingly disinfecting hands and paws (of pets) in case they do venture outdoors, and being supplied with food and groceries by a number of online delivery services that were still operating.
Life in Ningbo does seem to be getting back to normal. Chris Schell, project coordinator at the Sourcing Allies office in Ningbo, said he was able to make it to the office on February 19 after nearly a month at home. He said restrictions hadn’t been completely eased; he had to fill in a special health application form online that he showed at the office building to be permitted entry. Other team members such as project manager Bruce Zheng are still working from home, while another colleague is in the mandatory 14-day quarantine after returning from another province.
Elsewhere, such as Shenzhen in Guangdong province, home to the world’s largest electronics market, news reports said that traders were making attempts to restart business, some even setting up temporary stalls with bags full of electronics on sale.
China is indeed slowly returning to work. But with several factories unable to start production because of worker availability and quarantine issues, and with a logjam at ports, the big question is: How soon will it be business again as usual? How soon will the cogs of the massive engine that is the Chinese economy start moving as fast as they used to before the outbreak. Customers who are sourcing from China may also be wondering: “How soon am I going to get delivery of my order?”
It is difficult to give a conclusive answer to these questions but the good news is that things are improving. Developments in the past five days have certainly been positive with everything indicating that we are most likely to be up and running soon.
Having said that, we’d warn our customers to expect delays in deliveries because we are at a standstill till factories are completely back online. Additionally, as production starts and ports resume work, everyone will be rushing to fulfill pending orders so production and even shipping delays are likely. If you are our customer, it’s best to contact us at usoffice@sourcingallies.com for more up-to-date information.
In this blog, we talk about the impact of the deadly coronavirus outbreak on workers, factories, sea and air shipping over the past month, as well as what global economists have to say about the impact of the outbreak on the Chinese and global economy at large.
Worker travel limitations
China first informed the World Health Organisation that it was treating a number of unusual pneumonia cases in Wuhan on December 31. The first death was reported by state-run media on January 11.
The Chinese government subsequently imposed extensive restrictions on the movement of people, quarantining the epicenter Wuhan on January 23 followed by several other cities and provinces. The objective was to minimize the spread of the virus.
The New York Times estimated that half of China’s population – or at least 760 million people – have been subjected to movement restrictions with an army of volunteers and Communist Party representatives helping enforce them by shutting factories, blocking roads and quarantining entire apartment complexes.
These restrictions came around Chinese New Year (January 25 this year), a major holiday in China, where millions of people working in industrial hubs travel to their hometowns to celebrate with family. This is a traditionally slow time for manufacturing in China, because factories close for up to a week because of the festival. But the massive movement of people posed a risk of spreading the virus far and wide. To prevent the spread of the virus by travelling workers, several Chinese provinces, municipalities and regions extended the Lunar New Year holiday until February 10.
