* Container ship congestion builds at Chinese ports
* COVID-19 curbs keep port, factory, truck workers home
* Knock-on impact on goods to U.S., inflation
By Joe Brock
SINGAPORE, March 16 (Reuters) - The queues of container ships outside major Chinese ports are lengthening by the day as COVID-19 outbreaks in manufacturing export hubs threaten to unleash a fresh wave of global supply chain shocks, ship owners, logistics firms and analysts say.
China is experiencing its biggest spike in COVID-19 infections since an initial outbreak in the central city of Wuhan was contained in early 2020.
The spread of the highly-infectious Omicron variant this month has led to movement controls across China, including in key manufacturing hubs of Shenzhen and Dongguan, paralysing factories making goods from flash drives to car parts.
While China’s main ports remain open and vessels are continuing to dock, congestion is building up and some container ships are re-routing to avoid expected delays, according to ship owners, analysts and supply chain managers.
Charter rates are expected to ramp up, while delays to shipping freight grow longer, they said.
SUPPLY CHAIN CRISIS
Container loading is “decreasing massively” at Shenzhen's Yantian port, the world's fourth largest container terminal, as port workers, truckers and factory workers stayed at home, said Jasmine Wall, Asia-Pacific manager at SEKO Logistics.
“This implies that it will become difficult to get cargo to and from the ports and hence whether the terminals are open or not becomes a moot point,” said Lars Jensen, CEO at Vespucci Maritime, a container shipping advisor.
"It will have a disruptive impact on the supply chain - in turn prolonging the current supply chain crisis.”
Currently there are 34 vessels off Shenzhen waiting to dock, compared to an average of seven a year ago, according to Refinitiv ship tracking data. At Qingdao, an eastern Chinese port city, there are around 30 vessels waiting to dock compared to an average of seven last year.
Charter rates per 40-foot container remain close to all-time highs across major global shipping routes, trading at around $16,000 on the China-U.S. West Coast route and nearly $13,000 from China to Europe, according to Freightos shipping index.
"WHIPLASH EFFECT"
Similar COVID lockdowns last year saw operations at Yantian cut to one-third of capacity, leading to a bigger disruption of global shipping than the one caused by the closure of the Suez Canal for six days last year after the Ever Given container vessel ran aground, a director of Maersk, the world's largest container liner, noted last year