China Coronavirus Update

In our last advisory, we detailed how Beijing has made the determination to officially extend the Lunar New Year through February 2^nd while allowing individual provinces to determine whether or not to extend it further or take additional measures. Shanghai, for instance, extended the holiday closures through February 9^th and are checking and recording the temperatures of drivers and passengers of arriving vehicles.

As of Wednesday, January 29^th, we have learned that Tianjin, Dalian, Qingdao, Xiamen will resume work on February 3^rd and Suzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing, Wuhan, Ningbo, Guangzhou and Shenzhen offices will resume work on February 10^th

Over the past several days, the measures being taken both within China and by external countries and companies are demonstrating the steps that are being taken to prevent a further spread of the coronavirus.

We must strongly counsel our clients that the information we are receiving is fluid and changing in response to global monitoring of the potential spread and exposure to Chinese and foreign nationals who are within China or have traveled beyond its borders.

• British Airways has suspended all flights to and from mainland China.
• United Airlines has cut some flights beginning February 1^st for just over a week amid significantly decreased demand and would not rule out further action.
• American Airlines announced the suspension of flights between Los Angeles and Shanghai (PVG) and Beijing from February 9^th through March 27^th due to “the significant decline in demand for travel to and from China.”

As far as ocean carriers go, Danish carrier Maersk has a page on their site which they recommend bookmarking that on January 29^th advised the following:

“All Maersk operations including Terminal, Warehousing, Depots, Offices and other facilities except Wuhan continue to operate uninterrupted as per usual. Load/Discharge moves at Wuhan port have been suspended until further notice and our customer service teams are currently following up on shipment status with respective customers and discussing alternative transport plans.”

Port, airports, rail and China customs are still operating as per normal in this holiday period , except Wuhan which remains largely locked down. Congestion is expected due to the limited number of trailers available.

TOC Logistics continues to strongly encourage companies to communicate with their suppliers who will have the most current information on working hours and travel restrictions, if any. The significant decrease in flights coupled with the ongoing monitoring for the spread of the virus could potentially impact hand-carry services when factories re-open based on their province of origin.

We will continue to update via market advisories as new information is received, assessed and the impact on supply chains is clearly articulated.