A huge pile up of fish cargoes at a Chinese port risks impacting shipments of frozen food across the country and beyond. Hundreds of containers are being held up in Dalian, a major port for seafood imports, as local authorities test the fish for the coronavirus before allowing them to clear customs, according to several freight forwarders, consultants and shipping companies. That’s leading to scant availability of electric outlets to keep refrigerated containers, known as reefers, cold.

The shortage of plug points and dwindling space at the port have prompted shipping liners to cancel new reefer bookings into Dalian, and the congestion is now spreading to other refrigerated items like fruit and dumplings. It also means frozen containers are being diverted to other ports in China, leading to bottlenecks in Shanghai and Qingdao too.

“Much of the recent concern for rollover cargo has focused on reefer containers,” said Josh Brazil, chief operations officer of freight-data provider Ocean Insights. “If there are no power outlets at the port for reefers to be plugged in, cargoes of perishable food could be damaged or entirely lost if they cannot be re-routed to another port.”

The scenes playing out in Dalian echo the start of the disruptions the world saw when the coronavirus snared global trade flows early last year. Back then, lockdowns in countries including China meant ports were closed and ships couldn’t unload cargoes, causing a dearth of vessels across the world with the ripple effect lasting for months.

Dalian container ships

Ships carrying both refrigerated and normal container boxes wait in the Yellow Sea to unload cargo at Dalian.

The Tests

It also highlights the impact China’s controversial testing of foreign food for the virus is having on supply chains. The country has been testing imported meat and seafood for traces of the virus on concern Covid-19 can spread to humans, despite the World Health Organization saying there’s no evidence of people catching the virus from food and food packaging.