SHANGHAI PORT CONGESTION IS PROMINENT & U.S. SEAFOOD BAN IS STILL ALLOWING RUSSIAN IMPORTS

The world’s largest container port in Shanghai is causing major congestion issues due to lockdowns. AP Moller-Maersk A/S announced on April 15th that it would stop bookings to ship refrigerated containers into Shanghai due to recent lockdowns. Other behemoth shipping lines such as ONE Line, or Ocean Network Express, are expressing container pilings in Shanghai ports due to the same lockdown. 

Although this has caused Chinese ports to face congestion, ships are now bypassing their calls on ports such as Singapore to save time on unloading their raw materials. Hundreds of vessels are now refueling in Guangzhou or Zhoushan ports in China to optimize their transits. Other shipping lines commenting on their port call adjustments include the Mediterranean Shipping Company, MSC, after having to cancel stops in Singapore and bunker in China to save more time.

News coming this week arose after the US banned seafood and alcohol imports coming from Russia to enter the US. President Biden announced the ban on March 11th, and now, April 22nd, it has come to light that there is still a way for those imports to come into the country - legally. A policy called “substantial transformation,” states that products that have been altered in another country can claim a new place of origin for the product, according to Business Insider. Most of Russian seafood is intended to be processed in other countries, which made the ban ineffective from day one. The only way that it can be enforced is if companies still decide to go beyond the law and restrict their purchases from coming from Russia, or demanding major traceability over their supply chains.

This loophole has brought profit into the country, rather than stopping it. Supply chains can be inspected, and the administration can easily close this import loophole. This can hinder Americans from supporting Russian consumption unwillingly, due to undisclosed information from where products are coming from.