A truck carrying containers is seen at the container dock of Shanghai's Yangshan Port in east China, April 27, 2022. About 25,000 staff members stick to their posts in Shanghai port to guarantee water transportation and improve logistics efficiency amid challenges caused by the recent resurgence of COVID-19 in Shanghai.(Photo: Xinhua)

 
China’s logistics congestion has eased to some extent, as major logistics indices for airports, ports, freeway traffic and cargo throughput have seen a rising trend in recent days, an official from the Ministry of Transport (MOT) said on Wednesday at a press conference. 

Li Guoping, an MOT official, said ship receiving and unloading at Shanghai Port is normal currently, while the collection and distribution system is recovering. In April, Shanghai Port completed 3.08 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of container throughput, accounting for about 82 percent of last year’s level. 

In the first four months, the port received and delivered 15.34 million TEUs, up 1.8 percent on a yearly basis. Container throughput has also seen a rising trend, Li disclosed. 

Road transportation became a headache for truck drivers when the Shanghai Omicron cases started building, but that has also improved in recent days. On Tuesday, 21.87 million vehicles passed along domestic freeways, up 26.4 percent compared with April 10, Li said.  

He also said that all domestic expressway service areas were open on Tuesday again after some service areas were forced to close recently due to pandemic prevention measures. 

In terms of airports and railways, China’s railway freight volume surged by about 5.7 percent on Tuesday compared with April 18. Cargo throughput at Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Baiyun International Airport also rebounded. 

The improving cargo throughput and traffic at major transportation hubs came as China’s coronavirus outbreaks were brought under control. On Tuesday, Shanghai reported 1,259 asymptomatic COVID patients, compared with a peak of more than 20,000 cases. 

The government also took a series of measures to solve logistics congestion in recent weeks. The measures include a whitelist for truck drivers and nearly 200 emergency material transfer stations, officials said.