China’s mega-cities have again introduced new lockdowns. This could however lead to potential production stoppages, something thatis a cause for concern among international buyers.

Tianjin, the port city catering to Beijing, has made testing mandatory for 13 million people. The restrictions are compelling non-essential staff to work from home, while manufacturing companies have to reduce the number of employees active on their production sites. The situation is being closely monitored by western importers, still affected by the congestion in Chinese ports caused in part by the spring lockdowns.

Chengdu, one of central China’s biggest mega-cities, is meanwhile faced with lockdown measures affecting 21.2 million people. Here again Beijing is prioritising its zero Covid policy at the risk of slowing down the local economy, which has already been put to the test by the spring lockdown restrictions, as well as the energy shortages that punctuated the autumn and winter 2021-22.

China reported 1,717 Covid infections on August 29, including 349 symptomatic and 1,368 asymptomatic cases. In Hong Kong, the number of cases is on the rise, and there are expectations the number of infections will reach 10,000 per day this week, prompting fears that restrictions in this strategic city for the maritime export trade, which were recently relaxed, will be tightened again.