The traffic jam of cargo ships due to the ongoing corona lockdown in Shanghai is disrupting global supply chains and will result in higher prices in Germany.

"The delivery bottlenecks will now also be felt in Germany," said Maximilian Butek, the delegate of German business in Shanghai, on Friday to the dpa news agency.

According to estimates, the export volume of the world's largest port has already fallen by around 40 percent.

Many companies have not received their goods from the country for more than three weeks, said the delegate.

Alternative delivery routes via other ports were also not sufficient to cushion the loss.

"The shortage of supplies from China will continue to have a negative impact on the already high inflation in Germany," said Butek.

The concerns of the shipping companies are growing.

"The maritime supply chains were already tense before the lockdown in Shanghai - now we fear further delays in sea transport," said the President of the German Shipowners' Association VDR, Gaby Bornheim.

It was "sand in the gears".

Patience is needed now.

The liner shipping companies tried everything to transport the cargo quickly.

Rolf Habben Jansen, head of the Hapag-Lloyd shipping company, is cautiously optimistic.

"We are now also seeing the first signs that more cargo is being handled in the ports of Shanghai and Ningbo," he told the television channels RTL and ntv.

He therefore personally expects the situation in the Chinese ports to normalize as much as possible in four to six weeks.

Problems are likely to show up in May

The Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW) estimates that the current problems will only have a full impact on Germany in about two months.

The goods are about 30 to 40 days on the way to Hamburg, after which they have to be transported further.

"Then there could be delays with electronic items such as televisions or tablets or with intermediate goods for German production," said IfW trade expert Vincent Stamer.

This could affect automobile manufacturers or machine builders, for example.

"The shock waves that the standstill is triggering here in China are not yet fully comprehensible," said delegate Butek in Shanghai.

It may take months to fix the disruptions in the supply chains.

The port itself is not the biggest problem.

Because of the strict corona measures, the difficulty lies in transporting the goods by truck to and from the port.

Electronics and raw materials affected

“In principle, this applies to all product groups.

But the concern is particularly great when it comes to electronic items and raw materials or preliminary products,” said the delegate.

The lockdown now affects all companies - regardless of industry or size.

There are massive impairments in the supply chains, the transport and logistics options or in the staff and in production.

Overzealous local authorities make life difficult for the mostly self-employed truck drivers.

They have to apply for special transit permits, undergo constant testing and be subject to the quarantine requirements of individual cities.

Nationwide, freight traffic has already fallen drastically.

But many especially avoid the Shanghai port.