Allen Lu from AMR Relocation Service in Shanghai has advised that the city-wide lockdown in Shanghai has been extended indefinitely.

The restrictions are having a severe effect on all moving companies’ abilities to function properly at this time.

He explained that Shanghai began a half city lockdown on 28 March starting in Pudong (east part of Shanghai), that was badly hit, which was supposed to reopen on 1 April. A further lockdown in Puxi (west Shanghai) started on 1 April, and it was supposed to reopen on 6 April.

Allen said that both lockdowns have now been extended and there is no clear sign when the entire city will be reopened.  The purpose of this lockdown is to impose a mass COVID-19 test to eliminate transmission of new variant to achieve zero cases.

During the lockdowns, non-essential workers and non-essential transportation are all suspended. Residents are required to stay home for the arranged tests for COVID in the neighbourhood.

The effect is that:

• Crews are staying home;
• Office staff are working from home;
• Customs processes are suspended;
• Port operation is still on-going according to the port authority’s recent statement but we believe congestion will happen because haulage service is suspended.

Allen explains what his company can and cannot do at this time:

• No packing and delivery and loading;
• Our warehouse is closed (warehouse CCTV is still available) ;
• On-going shipments might receive Bill of lading much later than usual;
• Virtual survey is possible;
• The moving files might be maintained as usual depending on each company’s remote work equipment and IT infrastructure;
• Other major moving and relocation hubs are still in operation without virus disturbance.

He said that he does not expect the lockdown to be over soon, it could take another two to four weeks. He is also expecting some form of lockdown to be extended nationwide. When services do reopen, he expects the recovery to be slow as restrictions will not all be removed at one time. Demand is then likely to be high so customers would be wise to arrange virtual surveys as soon as possible to avoid greater congestion.

Although all AMR ground operations have stopped at this moment, its office staff still have access to e-mail and the move management system from home. “Please feel free to send us e-mails if you have any query about status of shipment, quotes and surveys,” said Allen “We will try our best to respond quickly.”

The restrictions, of course, apply to all moving companies in the area, even in surrounding cities as most of the business is conducted in or through Shanghai. The Mover will provide further updates as the situation develops.