CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Nearly 60 million people are under partial or full lockdown in Chinese cities and more than 80 cases have been confirmed outside of China.

As previously reported, the Chinese government announced an extension of the Chinese New Year to Feb 2nd. Several provinces have ordered companies and factories not to reopen before Feb 9th. This includes Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong. 

Operations:

It has been well documented today that British Airways have suspended all flights to and from China until March and Woodland are in contact with all of the other major airlines to be abreast of any further developments surrounding disruption to our operations.

Further to the already confirmed blank sailings that some Shipping Lines announced following Chinese New Year, some have begun to add further blank sailings to compensate for the extended CNY holiday and we expect other carriers to announce further blankings over the coming days. 

Woodland will endeavour to plan container movements as efficiently as possible around these blank sailings and at the time of writing, the ports are still operating, vessels are still calling and containers are still being loaded and discharged. 

However, there is expected to be lower levels of productivity at the ports due to the impact on their landside operations driven by restrictions on staffing and road closures.

Woodland are working with our local partners, Shipping Lines and Air Lines and we will continue to update you with any further details as they become available. 

Please contact your local Woodland representative should you have any concerns/questions and to discuss alternative routing options where required.