Impact of COVID-19 epidemic on port operations: Evidence from Asian ports

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Impact of COVID-19 epidemic on port operations: Evidence from Asian ports

Gu, Yimiao / Chen, Yingsi / Wang, Xinbo / Chen, Zhenxi

Highlights • We study the impact of COVID-19 on port operations. • Factors including newly confirmed local and worldwide cases, government preventive measures are considered. • Newly confirmed local cases tend to negatively impact cargo throughput while the worldwide cases tend to have positive effect. • Government preventive measures significantly impact port operation.

Abstract The outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted the shipping industry while the extent of the impact is still not fully understood. To quantitatively investigate the relationship between pandemic-related factors and port operations, a panel regression analysis is conducted using data from three important Asian ports, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Daily data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS), Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) database, and port authorities from January 2020 to December 2021 are utilized. Local newly confirmed cases of ports tend to negatively impact cargo throughput, while worldwide newly confirmed cases outside of ports tend to positively impact cargo throughput. Overall, the policy implications are that ports with better control of COVID-19 reap the benefits of more cargo throughput. In addition, countermeasures against COVID-19 and other epidemics should be designed deliberately to minimize the side-effect on port operations and maritime transportation.