By TANG Jun

With no new local cases of Covid-19 in Shanghai confirmed for Monday and Tuesday, the city is gradually returning to normal. In early June, freight traffic in Shanghai was about 30 percent of the same period last year. By last week, freight traffic had recovered to 61.85 percent of a year earlier, the highest level since April.

In mid-April, freight rates soared ten-fold to more than 10,000 yuan due to a severe freight capacity shortage as trucks could not move smoothly in and out of Shanghai. Now, the freight for the same journey is less than 2,000 yuan, with the lowest price down to 1,000 yuan, down more than 90 percent from the peak in April.

Since June, the average daily container throughput of Shanghai Port has been 125,800 TEUs, recovering to more than 95 percent of the same period last year.

Over the past week, Pudong Airport has guaranteed an average of 232 take-offs and landings of cargo flights and 9,267 tons of inbound and outbound cargo, returning to normal levels.

Since this month, 15 railway freight stations in Shanghai have resumed normal operations, with an average of about 1,700 vehicles dispatched daily, an increase of 30 percent compared with the pandemic period.

An average of 18.15 million items have been collected and delivered daily by Shanghai Post express, about 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels.