The ongoing Omicron variant-driven issues that have been plaguing key manufacturing and port hubs in China continue to raise supply chain concerns.
As previously reported, these issues are having a significant downstream impact on United States-bound import patterns, at a time when the ongoing supply chain congestion issues appeared to be showing signs of improvement. And since then, China’s largest city, Shanghai, is under a full lockdown, which has been extended indefinitely, due to the ongoing increases in positive cases that have been reported.
What’s more, a March 15 New York Times report, leading up to the Shanghai shutdown, noted that Chinese officials are “imposing lockdowns and restrictions that are adding chaos to global supply chains,” coupled with China’s zero-Covid policy, with many of China’s largest industrial cities fighting outbreaks, which are impacting its factory and transportation networks, referred to as the backbone of both China’s manufacturing, as well as the global economy.
The report also noted that since Omicron infections have picked up in China, a number of cities with major manufacturing operations and presences have closed down, including: Dongguan and Shenzhen in southern China near Hong Kong, where Foxconn has huge factories to make iPhones and other Apple products; Changchun and Jilin City in Jilin Province; and Langfang, next to Beijing. And it added that some smaller cities have also gone into lockdowns, like Suifenhe and Manzhouli on China’s border with Russia.
