‘Trade is holding steady’: Los Angeles port has yet to see impact of Shanghai lockdowns

While lockdowns in China have caused manufacturing disruptions and delayed supply deliveries, the Port of Los Angeles is not seeing any major effects at the moment, Seroka said. The port is working with the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan to help the flow of cargo.

“The [Ningbo] port director himself is making sure that Transpacific trade and cargo specifically near Southern California is prioritized,” Seroka said. Ningbo has taken cargo “away from Shanghai to alleviate that pressure,” he said. “What we see in front of us is [a] constant flow of cargo vessels on the container side,” he said.

Despite a consistent flow of cargo, shippers have still been affected by the ongoing lockdowns in China. Ford, for example, reported supply constraints slowing down its assembly line, with over 50,000 vehicles awaiting component installation of semiconductors. The automaker resorted to using expedited shipping lanes to pull ahead supply and mitigate COVID-19 disruptions in China, according to the company’s April 27 Q1 earnings call.

Lockdowns in Shanghai have now stretched more than six weeks, with uncertainty remaining about what further effects the disruptions will have on Southern California ports and the global supply chain.

“There are a lot of things we don’t know,” Seroka said. “If this lockdown goes farther, it goes deeper into May or June, these are issues that we’re going to have to grapple with.”