Shutting Shanghai Factories; Paying Walmart’s Drivers; Tankers Team Up

The Yangshan deep-water port in Shanghai. PHOTO: ALY SONG/REUTERS

Manufacturers are struggling to keep some of their China operations going amid widening Covid-19 lockdowns. The restrictions that have been extended across Shanghai are choking off supplies and clogging up truck routes and ports, the WSJ’s Yang Jie reports, heaping more pressure on stretched global supply chains and threatening to trigger more logjams in the coming weeks. The curbs are keeping many workers at home, restricting output at some factories and closing others, including component makers for Apple and Tesla. Two Volkswagen factories, in Shanghai and China’s northeastern province of Jilin, remain closed through Friday. German conglomerate Thyssenkrupp has pushed back its target to restart production of auto components at its Shanghai plant to April 15. The problems at factories come as shipping and trucking companies are suffering growing delays. Port of Shanghai volumes have plummeted as shippers and logistics companies divert cargo to nearby Ningbo.