The Port of Shanghai has broken its container traffic record for the month of July as it saw 3.9 million TEU pass through its terminals, according to figures from the Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG).
Traffic increased year-on-year (YoY) 1.2% and 7.6% on June’s traffic, which suggests the Port might have recovered fully from the chaos caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shanghai is the busiest port in China and handled over 40 million TEU in 2018
February 2020 was the height of the pandemic for traffic in China and the Port handled 2.2 million TEU, its lowest traffic for that month since 2014 when the world was in the middle of the oil glut crisis, and a substantial fall from the 3.6 million it handled in January.
The outbreak and subsequent pandemic caused a substantial shock to China’s ports and has since led to congestion and chaos at many of the world’s busiest gateways, in particular the US.
The crisis has also put many of China’s biggest infrastructure projects under threat, such as its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as the New Silk Road.
However, data released by the China Ministry of Transport in July showed that although traffic had fallen by 5.4% YoY in the first half of 2020, the overall trend of falling trade had stopped.
The Port of Dalian was the worst affected of China’s major ports, with a 31.6% crash in TEU traffic YoY between January and June 2020.
