Our lives may be more affected than we think by the Shanghai epidemic.

According to the charts below, the number of ships waiting to be loaded or unloaded outside Shanghai port are far greater than in the past.

Global product supply chain disruptions may result. Shanghai's port is the world's busiest container port, handling millions more containers than Singapore's second largest.

It's as if a major supply chain artery has been blocked. Grain and industrial raw materials are shipped to Shanghai Port every day, then distributed throughout the country.

Maybe some of the food you ate or parts of your phone came from Shanghai Port.

Transportation issues have a greater impact on some industries, like auto manufacturing.

Shanghai and surrounding provinces' supplies could be disrupted until May, according to He Xiaopeng, chairman of @XpengMotors.

So, if the price of cars rises in the future, it should be correlated to raw material supply in Shanghai Port. Of course, the issue isn't just the car.

In April, 82% of semiconductor, hardware, and industrial tech manufacturers in eastern China reported supply chain disruptions.

As the world's largest manufacturer, China's exports are shipped via cargo ships from Shanghai Port.

The volume of container freight at Chinese ports, led by Shanghai Port, fell by over 31% from April 6 to 15.

This will have ripples affects through the US, Europe, and other trading partners with China.

.@RodZeidan, associate professor of economics at @nyushanghai, stated that the supply issues will not only affect the global economy but also raise inflation.

But Shanghai's port isn't totally shut. The port has been open since late March through a closed-loop system.

Strict epidemic prevention measures have forced many port workers out of work. Passes affect around 90% of Shanghai's delivery truck drivers.

As a result, thousands of containers await loading at the port.

Long Beach and LA, are suffering from a severe shortage of skilled workers responsible for long-distance transportation as the BA.2 wave spreads across the country.

Truck drivers have become scarce everywhere.

These factors have strained the US supply chain, resulting in many goods being stored rather than sold.

In Sept of last year, around 75 container ships per day waited outside Long Beach and LA.

60 container ships awaited docking and unloading off the West Coast on Oct. 7

Before Covid-19, such a scenario was almost impossible, with hardly a single cargo ship waiting outside the port. The port's bottleneck has a domino effect.

Loading and unloading a container from China to the US West Coast has risen from around $3,000 in August 2020 to over $20,000 in September 2021.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government has advised consumers to buy Christmas gifts early in October to avoid a shortage later in the year.

Faced with this situation, the Biden administration is working with California authorities, local labor unions, and retail and shipping companies like Walmart and FedEx to expand capacity and give employees extra time off.

This may be difficult to implement given Shanghai's current epidemic prevention policy.

Shanghai's container throughput is also 2.5 times that of Long Beach and Los Angeles. The city's position in global shipping and commodity supply is simply unmatched.

In a tense economic environment, two factors now impact the supply chain:

-Strong consumer demand after a long period of stagnation.

-Global food and energy commodity due to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

In such circumstances, the Shanghai Port should have helped stabilize global commodity supply.

But, the epidemic came in the way. And the freight companies didn’t wait. Maersk, diverted ships to other ports in China, such as Tianjin and Qingdao in the north.

The northern port can't handle all cargo, so many must still need to go to Shanghai. Surplus of 222 bulk carriers waited near Shanghai on the same day. More than 200 container ships are anchored in Shanghai-Ningbo, up 17% from a month ago.

The ramifications increase with a country's export share. China's GDP growth is now being scrutinized.

One thing is clear: the epidemic is not confined to one city in Shanghai.

Its massive economic impact has gradually spread across the country and even the world.

And, we are yet to realize those ramifications in our own neighborhood yet.