(Yicai Global) June 7 -- Shanghai's container transport is reported to have almost fully recovered just a week after the Chinese megacity exited its Covid-19 lockdown.

Daily container handling capacity has returned to more than 95 percent of normal levels, Shanghai Securities News reported today. International cargo flights from Shanghai Pudong International Airport also have resumed, the report said.

“We’ve received 2,500 twenty-foot equivalent units worth of orders in the week since the city started to fully resume business and production, causing a lack of cargo shipping space,” the report cited a source at one of the global top 10 shipping companies as saying.

The person is mainly responsible for Southeast Asian routes. Based on the present situation, he said it should not be a problem for the ships he is responsible for to take orders for more than 10,000 TEUs in June. His company had orders for about 4,000 TEUs on the same routes amid China’s Covid-19 outbreaks in April. That was far below the 14,000 TEUs of a year earlier.

Shipping fees also have been rising as orders pile up, the person added. Charges have doubled to USD100 on short routes and even thousands of US dollars for some European and American passages, he said. 

Shanghai’s port is getting busier too, according to a logistics worker whose employer has four berths. Each container vessel is staying no longer than 12 hours as turnaround has been expedited, the person said.

Cargo flights are also resuming. Pudong, one of Shanghai's two International airports, handled more than 200 cargo flights a day on average during the recent Dragon Boat Festival holiday, basically the same as before the recent Covid-19 outbreaks, according to customs data.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi