Question

How is exactly is the trucking and seaport maritime business (supply chain) connected to the Coronavirus? Please be specific as it relates to the smart technology.

Answer 1

Ans) China’s Council for the Promotion of International Trade has issued 1,615 force majeure slips to help companies avoid penalties for not being able to meet contractual obligations amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

- The new coronavirus outbreak in China has hit global supply chains hard with the impact starting to show as inventories run low amid prolonged citywide shutdowns and factory closures.

- As the coronavirus spreads to countries outside China, supply chain managers in the U.S. expect ripple effects to reach our shores in the coming weeks and months.

Coronavirus is in the news, and there have been a lot of dire predictions about a worldwide pandemic. The new variant of this virus spread rapidly in China, and it must be pretty scary for people in and near the affected regions. On the business side, supply chain pros worry because China's economy is intertwined with ours and with the rest of the world, and the impact could cause gaps in worldwide availability of many raw materials, intermediate goods, and finished products.

So far, there has not been much of a direct impact on domestic freight volumes in the U.S., but it could just be too soon to tell. It's the slow season over here, and we would not ordinarily be getting much in the way of imports from China anyway. For one thing, most Chinese factories and ports were closed for the Chinese New Year at the end of January, and after they re-open it typically takes a couple of weeks for ships to reach our shores.