The Port of Oakland expects to see a drop in the number of container ships bringing goods into the Bay Area, in part because of the coronavirus outbreak in China.
Port officials said that they expect 23 ships to cancel within
the next five weeks, a loss of about 20% of normal inbound traffic.
This time of year is normally the “slack season,” when
shipments from China drop off because of factory shutdowns during the lunar new
year, however China did extend the closures because of the coronavirus. This could
mean more ship cancellations.
“We’re in a bit of a too-soon-to-tell stage,” said Mike Zampa
with the Port of Oakland. “We’ve got numbers for February coming out in the
next two weeks. We will know a little bit more then, but we do expect to see
some more fallout, and we do expect it will be related in part to the
coronavirus.”
In spite of the coronavirus and the trade war
with China, Port officials said export volume has been up the past four to five
months because of strong Asian demand for American products, especially farm
goods from California
Source: NBC Bay Area
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