The Port of Oakland expects to see a drop in the number of container ships bringing goods into the Bay Area, in part because of the coronavirus outbreak in China.
Port officials said that they expect 23 ships to cancel within the next five weeks, a loss of about 20% of normal inbound traffic.
This time of year is normally the “slack season,” when shipments from China drop off because of factory shutdowns during the lunar new year, however China did extend the closures because of the coronavirus. This could mean more ship cancellations.
“We’re in a bit of a too-soon-to-tell stage,” said Mike Zampa with the Port of Oakland. “We’ve got numbers for February coming out in the next two weeks. We will know a little bit more then, but we do expect to see some more fallout, and we do expect it will be related in part to the coronavirus.” In spite of the coronavirus and the trade war with China, Port officials said export volume has been up the past four to five months because of strong Asian demand for American products, especially farm goods from California
