Faced with the worst wave of Covid-19 in China since the start of the epidemic, the economic capital of the country has been in total or partial confinement for two weeks.

Even if no death has been deplored in Shanghai, where the overwhelming majority of cases of contamination are asymptomatic, the authorities have chosen to confine its 25 million inhabitants to their homes, despite a very heavy cost for the economy.

At the gates of the municipality, thousands of heavy goods vehicles are stranded: drivers entering the city must leave to observe a quarantine of at least two weeks themselves wherever they go next in China.

Hence a shortage of drivers which affects the activity of the port, even if the authorities assure that for the time being "less than ten" ships a day are waiting offshore to be able to dock.

"But the problem is that because of the restrictions imposed on truck drivers (the port) does not really work," Bettina Schön-Behanzin, vice-president of the EU Chamber of Commerce, told AFP. Shanghai.

"What I've heard is that volumes are down 40% per week at the Port of Shanghai. That's huge," she reports.

Neither workers nor raw materials

The effect is beginning to be felt across China, where delivery delays are on the rise on e-commerce platforms, particularly for imported products.

Some factories are forced to find new suppliers.

But the impact threatens to cause a stir also internationally: the port of Shanghai alone provides 17% of Chinese maritime tonnage.

Any disruption can only slow trade in the world's largest exporter of goods.

Industrialists point out that the repeated confinements from one end of the country to the other are seriously harming their activity.

“Not all professions can work from home,” notes Jason Lee, founder of a wheelchair company, Megalicht Tech, whose Shanghai factory is shut down.

"The workers cannot enter the factory," he said.

"And since the raw materials come from other provinces, they cannot enter Shanghai either."

The epidemic threat weighs on the government's growth target, which is counting on a rate of 5.5% this year, already its lowest target for 30 years.

According to the Nomura bank, no less than 23 major cities representing 22% of Chinese GDP have imposed total or partial containment measures.

"The cost of the zero-Covid strategy will increase significantly just as its benefits wane, especially with declining exports," observes economist Lu Ting of Nomura.

Adapt to survive

Entrepreneurs adapt to survive.

"Our main body of business is down 50%," said Gao Yongkang, general manager of Qifeng Technology in Quanzhou (east).

His company can no longer deliver textile products to its usual customers.

She therefore converted to the manufacture of full medical suits, a booming sector.

Others managed to change suppliers.

"It's a little more expensive and a little less effective, but we manage to meet our needs," said Shen Shengyuan, deputy general manager of New Yifa Group, a producer of baby diapers.

In order to help the most affected sectors, the government announced this week a deferral of social security contributions for catering, tourism and transport.

But industrialists consider the use of confinements excessive, given the low mortality of the Omicron variant.

"Does the zero Covid strategy still work in the current context?"

asks Eric Zheng, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

"That's the big question, especially when weighed against its economic cost."

© 2022 AFP