Working together to protect Shanghai, Shanghai spends 70 billion to support the development of foreign trade enterprises!

It has been three years since the COVID-19 outbreak began at the end of 2019. Although governments around the world are trying every means to control and eradicate the epidemic, new variants continue to emerge due to the characteristics of the virus, which has also led to the gradual normalization of the epidemic.

Recently, Shanghai has ushered in a new round of epidemic. In recent days, the number of newly added cases has exceeded 1,000 per day, and the number of newly added local asymptomatic infections has exceeded 10,000, which has touched the hearts of people across the country. The sudden outbreak has brought a certain degree of crisis and test to Shanghai, an international metropolis, and the people of this city.

Taking cross-border logistics as an example, Shanghai is an international port city. In 2021, the container throughput of Shanghai Port exceeded 47 million TEUs, an increase of 8% year-on-year, ranking first in the world for 12 consecutive years . However, due to the impact of the epidemic, Shanghai Port has experienced a labor shortage and land transportation has been blocked, which has had a negative impact on the foreign trade logistics industry.

In order to mitigate the negative impact of the epidemic on Shanghai's foreign trade enterprises, the Shanghai Municipal Government has also introduced a series of foreign trade support policies. At the same time, Shanghai has set up a special fund of 70 billion yuan to support foreign trade enterprises in fighting the epidemic and promoting development.

Port congestion: 477 cargo ships line up at East China ports waiting to unload

Shanghai launched a citywide lockdown to combat the epidemic, which to some extent hampered the customs clearance of import and export goods, and many ships carrying goods were waiting in line at the port. Now, half a month has passed, and the congestion has expanded to several nearby ports.

According to foreign media reports, as of April 11, there were 222 bulk carriers waiting to unload at Shanghai Port, a 15% increase from a month ago. There were 134 ships waiting at Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, a 0.8% increase from the previous month. Further north, there were 121 ships waiting at the three ports of Rizhao, Dongjiakou and Qingdao, a 33% increase from the previous month.

Worse still, there are 197 container ships loading or waiting to be loaded at the joint anchorage of Shanghai and Ningbo, a 17% increase from a month ago.

A shortage of workers at Shanghai ports is slowing down the unloading of ships, while ships carrying copper and iron ore are stranded at sea because trucks cannot transport cargo from the port to processing plants. Shipping companies have pointed out that cargo handling efficiency has dropped by 30% due to the lack of truck transportation at the port.

Affected by the lockdown in Shanghai, some voyages of Maersk and Zim have begun to cancel calls at Shanghai Port and instead provide multimodal transport services such as "land-to-water" or rail. In addition, many routes have adjusted their sailing schedules to start and end later.

As an important part of the global supply chain, the current situation of Shanghai Port is also affecting the global supply chain system. According to Josh Brazil, senior vice president of Project44, a global supply chain service provider, delays have occurred in European ports such as Hamburg and Rotterdam, and the time to enter major European ports has been extended by 10-12 days compared with the past.

The backlog of ships at East China ports may also pose a threat to the improvement of the supply chain at the Port of Los Angeles . According to foreign media reports, the cargo volume at the Port of Los Angeles has risen slightly, with 958,674 standard containers passing through the terminal in March, and the port's throughput in the first quarter also increased by 3.5% year-on-year.

Against this less optimistic backdrop, in order to ensure the normal operation of Shanghai's sea and air ports, Shanghai Customs has urgently introduced targeted measures to promote the improvement of cargo declaration and pick-up efficiency, further enhance the port's collection and distribution capabilities, and safeguard the safety and smooth operation of the industrial chain and supply chain.

Shanghai government releases foreign trade support policy during the epidemic

Although the lockdown measures taken to control the epidemic have brought many inconveniences to the foreign trade industry to a certain extent, the government is also actively introducing a series of policies to support the development of the foreign trade industry and reduce corresponding losses.

The Ministry of Transport recently issued the "Notice on Effectively Strengthening the Work Related to Ensuring the Smoothness of Water Transport", requiring all units to ensure the smoothness of freight logistics in accordance with the notice and conduct self-inspection and self-correction .

In terms of making every effort to ensure smooth and orderly operation of the port, the Notice requires that all efforts be made to ensure the smooth operation of Shanghai Port. Coordinate with international liner companies to ensure the input of flights and space for routes calling at Shanghai Port, and do not arbitrarily reduce the number of calls at Shanghai Port; urge cargo owners and freight forwarding companies to pick up local container cargo from the port as soon as possible; make good use of electronic passes for container trucks to ensure smooth entry and exit of container trucks.

At the same time, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce has made the following efforts to further support foreign trade enterprises in fighting the epidemic and promoting development in accordance with the "Several Policy Measures of Shanghai to Fight the Epidemic and Help Enterprises Promote Development" and the "Joint Work Plan of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government and the Export-Import Bank of China to Fight the Epidemic and Protect Enterprises and Stabilize Foreign Trade".

1. Establishment of special funds. The Shanghai Branch of the Export-Import Bank of China will set up special quotas of RMB 30 billion and RMB 20 billion for the export and import businesses of foreign trade enterprises respectively, and set up special quotas of RMB 10 billion for each of the two major areas of foreign trade and inclusive finance. For key enterprises that meet the above support scope, according to their financial service needs, they will be equipped with exclusive service teams and set up fast review channels. They will also actively use policy-based preferential interest rate loans or seek other preferential interest rate policies from the head office to reduce corporate financing costs.

2. Appropriately extend the loan period. The Shanghai Branch of the Export-Import Bank of China will provide relief to companies in difficulty that are severely affected by the epidemic through measures such as loan extensions and adjustments to repayment plans, ensuring that loans are not withdrawn, loans are not discontinued, and loans are not suppressed. The Shanghai Branch of the Export-Import Bank of China will increase its medium- and long-term loan issuance efforts to meet the long-term funding needs of companies that are severely affected by the epidemic, as well as the research and development and industrialization funding needs of innovative products for epidemic prevention and control by related companies.

3. Emergency response loans: The Export-Import Bank of China Shanghai Branch will provide emergency response loans to support the financing needs of key epidemic support enterprises that have been identified.

In fact, in addition to Shanghai, Guangdong, Jiangsu and other places have also introduced corresponding policies to support foreign trade enterprises under the epidemic. For example, Jiangsu Province organized 3+60 "Jiangsu Quality Products · Global Travel" online exhibitions and matchmaking meetings to help foreign trade enterprises expand their markets online; in response to the cross-border supply chain difficulties caused by the epidemic, the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce proposed a number of specific measures that directly meet the needs of enterprises, improve customs clearance facilitation and port capacity, and ensure the stability and smoothness of the foreign trade industry chain supply chain.

Shanghai is at a critical moment in epidemic prevention and control. All ministries and commissions are exploring effective ways to coordinate epidemic prevention and control with economic and social development to minimize the impact of the epidemic on corporate production. I believe that under the leadership of the government and with the support of the people across the country, Shanghai will be able to achieve zero cases and return to normal operations as soon as possible.

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Foreign trade logistics

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