The Omicron virus wave in China appears to have eased global shipping bottlenecks rather than worsened them as many had feared. Firms were able to re-route shipments through other ports to avoid disruption in Shanghai. And weaker goods demand domestically freed up port capacity that could be used for export shipments. In the past three months, container throughput for foreign trade has risen at its fastest pace in over a year. There has probably been some movement of vessels from domestic to foreign routes too. Together, the increase in export-directed capacity helps explain why freight rates out of China have fallen sharply.
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