Productivity levels to return to normal in Yantian Port by late June

Despite an outbreak of COVID-19, productivity levels at Yantian Port in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, are expected to return to normal by the end of June on the premise of doing a good job in epidemic prevention and control, a release by Shenzhen government's official news outlet said. 

On May 21, a male employee at the port was detected to be infected with coronavirus in a routine inspection of crew working on international freighter. Earlier, he worked on an international freighter named the Oriental Vancouver.

The outcome of genome sequencing showed the virus in that case has the same origin as the Alpha variant, a COVID-19 strain first detected in the United Kingdom.

And the case also triggered a new round of pandemic outbreak in Shenzhen.

To contain the virus' spread, the port immediately strengthened epidemic prevention and control measures. Mass testing for its staff is taken every day rather than every seven days, as was done previously.

The tighter COVID-19 controls also have affected operational efficiency; the port has operated at 30 percent of its normal productivity levels since the case was confirmed.

To date, there are nine berths in operation, processing nearly 24,000 20-foot equivalent units worth of containers, which means the overall operating capacity of the port has resumed to 70 percent of its normal levels.

The port is one of the busiest deep-water ports in the world.

In the first quarter of 2021, containers processed there increased by 45 percent year-on-year.