Global trade is being slowed down by the sluggish recovery of China's logistics sector, with a build-up of containers at the country's ports creating problems around the world.
Subsequent to the outbreak of the 2019-nCoV coronavirus that began in China's Wuhan province, not all of the country's workers have returned to their jobs after the extended break for the lunar new year holiday. This has slowed the rate at which the logistics sector is able to operate.
China is home to several of the world's largest container ports, including Shanghai, Shenzhen and Ningbo-Zhoushan. With these ports unable to process containers at the normal rate, the availability of units for use at other major global ports has been reduced.
This has meant that anyone attempting to ship commodities by container has experienced delays.
"It is hard to secure containers on vessels heading to Ningbo," a cobalt producer in China said, adding that there had been severe congestion at the port during the early stages of the virus outbreak.
"Cobalt hydroxide suppliers seem to want to have...