An outbreak of COVID-19 in eastern Zhejiang province, one of the engines of China’s economy, has resulted in plant closures that risk disrupting global supply chains.
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The coastal province of 64.6 million people is located immediately south of Shanghai. Highly industrialized, export-oriented, it is the country’s fourth economy with more than 6% of Chinese GDP.
Following the emergence of COVID cases last week, local authorities have imposed the closure of many industrial sites.
These disturbances have already caused a drop in global oil prices on Monday, the market worried about a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy.
Zhenhai District in the port city of Ningbo has ordered all businesses to shut down except those vital to daily life and the fight against the epidemic.
Petrochemical plants can continue to operate, but by reducing their production.
In the nearby town of Shaoxing, Shangyu District ordered all businesses to close on Thursday.
In Hangzhou, the provincial capital, several listed companies have announced that they will suspend production in press releases to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
Hundreds of flights to and from Hangzhou Airport have been canceled.
“Plant closures in Zhejiang will affect supply chains in several sectors, including fibers and textiles,” ANZ Research economist Zhaopeng Xing told AFP.
According to him, the recent outbreak could take 40 days to be eliminated, meaning production would not resume until the Chinese New Year, which falls on February 1.
China, where COVID-19 first appeared two years ago, managed to largely curb the contagion in the spring of 2020 by resorting to radical containment measures.
But sporadic outbreaks appear regularly.
Zhejiang, spared since the beginning of the year, has reported more than 200 cases for a week, including 44 of the 51 announced Tuesday for the whole country over the last 24 hours.
Across the province, more than 50,000 people have been quarantined in closed centers and more than 20,000 others confined to their homes. More than 465,000 are placed under medical surveillance.
Further north, in the municipality of Tianjin, near Beijing, a first Chinese case of the Omicron variant was also reported Monday in a person returning from abroad.