Shanghai lockdowns to end, perhaps easing tech supply chain woes
(2022/05/30)
- Reference: 1653883231
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/05/30/shanghai_lockdowns_to_end/
- Source link:
China’s largest city, Shanghai, will this week all-but end its COVID-19 lockdowns on Wednesday, and by doing so may smooth some of the kinks in the world’s technology supply chains.
Limited lockdowns commenced in Shanghai during mid-March, before April escalations imposed city-wide restrictions that have remained in place ever since.
Shanghai is a major manufacturing hub, so the lockdowns have caused considerable pain. Cisco, for example, Cisco [1]warned of disruption to supplies of parts it needs for power supplies. The likes of Foxconn, Tesla, and Toyota, have all ceased or slowed production. Chinese chipmaker SMIC [2]kept production ticking over by having staff move either into its plants, or into a COVID-free zone around its plants.
[3]
Shanghai city authorities now say they’ve controlled COVID’s spread to their satisfaction and are happy for the city to re-open with few restrictions in districts that have gone 14 days without a detected infection.
[4]
[5]
At a Sunday press conference, officials [6]said 1,700 “key production-oriented enterprises in the region have resumed work and production,” as have 450 key financial institutions and 580 key foreign trade enterprises.
Local stores and malls are slowly re-opening, and many public transport services have resumed.
[7]
City authorities also saw fit to mention that 88 per cent of e-commerce warehouses have resumed operations.
[8]Drone ship carrying yet more drones launches in China
[9]Revealed: The semi-secret list of techs Beijing really really wishes it didn't have to import
[10]Huawei claims it’s halved the time needed to build a 1,000-rack datacenter
Shanghai’s administrators have also [11]announced subsidy schemes for industries including software development. Free or low cost broadband services for SMEs is another stimulus initiative. Some SMEs will be eligible for free software that it is hoped will accelerate their digital transformation efforts.
The city’s government even hopes that the lockdowns will see businesses accelerate development of digital pandemic-management tools.
Shanghai’s re-opening will be welcome worldwide, but perhaps more so in China as the nation’s economy has suffered during 2022 as lockdowns have hurt local e-commerce giants [12]JD and [13]Alibaba . Demand for smartphones has slumped in 2022, according to [14]data [PDF] from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.
Shanghai’s lockdowns have also challenged China’s government by generating dissent that was quashed by preventing the use of certain hashtags that became popular expressions of frustration with the severity and provision of support while the city was under strict controls. Such content was, of course, removed whenever possible. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/19/cisco_warns_shanghai_lockdown_to/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/28/almost_twothirds_of_smics_shanghai/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YpSVxTMaBnq-km9Se3BH2AAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YpSVxTMaBnq-km9Se3BH2AAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YpSVxTMaBnq-km9Se3BH2AAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] http://wsjkw.sh.gov.cn/xwfb/20220529/be7469fa1db54e3281c65e786036843c.html
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YpSVxTMaBnq-km9Se3BH2AAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/29/unmanned_dronecarrying_research_ship_launches/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/27/chinas_semisecret_list_of_techs/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/27/huawei_next_gen_dc_facility/
[11] http://www.shio.gov.cn/sh/xwb/n790/n792/n1173/n1183/u1ai30306.html
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/18/jd_q1_2022/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/27/alibaba_lenovo_q4_fy_2022/
[14] http://www.caict.ac.cn/kxyj/qwfb/qwsj/202205/P020220525364070672072.pdf
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Limited lockdowns commenced in Shanghai during mid-March, before April escalations imposed city-wide restrictions that have remained in place ever since.
Shanghai is a major manufacturing hub, so the lockdowns have caused considerable pain. Cisco, for example, Cisco [1]warned of disruption to supplies of parts it needs for power supplies. The likes of Foxconn, Tesla, and Toyota, have all ceased or slowed production. Chinese chipmaker SMIC [2]kept production ticking over by having staff move either into its plants, or into a COVID-free zone around its plants.
[3]
Shanghai city authorities now say they’ve controlled COVID’s spread to their satisfaction and are happy for the city to re-open with few restrictions in districts that have gone 14 days without a detected infection.
[4]
[5]
At a Sunday press conference, officials [6]said 1,700 “key production-oriented enterprises in the region have resumed work and production,” as have 450 key financial institutions and 580 key foreign trade enterprises.
Local stores and malls are slowly re-opening, and many public transport services have resumed.
[7]
City authorities also saw fit to mention that 88 per cent of e-commerce warehouses have resumed operations.
[8]Drone ship carrying yet more drones launches in China
[9]Revealed: The semi-secret list of techs Beijing really really wishes it didn't have to import
[10]Huawei claims it’s halved the time needed to build a 1,000-rack datacenter
Shanghai’s administrators have also [11]announced subsidy schemes for industries including software development. Free or low cost broadband services for SMEs is another stimulus initiative. Some SMEs will be eligible for free software that it is hoped will accelerate their digital transformation efforts.
The city’s government even hopes that the lockdowns will see businesses accelerate development of digital pandemic-management tools.
Shanghai’s re-opening will be welcome worldwide, but perhaps more so in China as the nation’s economy has suffered during 2022 as lockdowns have hurt local e-commerce giants [12]JD and [13]Alibaba . Demand for smartphones has slumped in 2022, according to [14]data [PDF] from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.
Shanghai’s lockdowns have also challenged China’s government by generating dissent that was quashed by preventing the use of certain hashtags that became popular expressions of frustration with the severity and provision of support while the city was under strict controls. Such content was, of course, removed whenever possible. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/19/cisco_warns_shanghai_lockdown_to/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/28/almost_twothirds_of_smics_shanghai/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YpSVxTMaBnq-km9Se3BH2AAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YpSVxTMaBnq-km9Se3BH2AAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YpSVxTMaBnq-km9Se3BH2AAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] http://wsjkw.sh.gov.cn/xwfb/20220529/be7469fa1db54e3281c65e786036843c.html
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YpSVxTMaBnq-km9Se3BH2AAAABY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/29/unmanned_dronecarrying_research_ship_launches/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/27/chinas_semisecret_list_of_techs/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/27/huawei_next_gen_dc_facility/
[11] http://www.shio.gov.cn/sh/xwb/n790/n792/n1173/n1183/u1ai30306.html
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/18/jd_q1_2022/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/27/alibaba_lenovo_q4_fy_2022/
[14] http://www.caict.ac.cn/kxyj/qwfb/qwsj/202205/P020220525364070672072.pdf
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
So, how's it working out for them?
Steve Button
"the lockdowns have caused considerable pain" ... but they have completely eradicated Covid, right? Right? (insert Episode II meme) And it's never coming back? (or they would need ANOTHER hard lockdown).
From the department of the bleeding obvious - this strategy just can't work in the long term, or even the medium term. And even short term is not long enough to have much effect. So, you have to have a really hard lockdown, make people suffer greatly and even then you are only holding back the tide, to buy time. Time for what exactly?
The lockdowns just cause misery and suffering, and the harder the lockdown, the harder the misery and suffering (and deaths of course).
Don't most people realise this by now? Is anyone still on "team lockdown" (apart from the CCP)
Pascal Monett
Waiting for next week's news of the sudden surge in new COVID cases in Shanghai.
That's the tech sector.
Global logistics blew up for everybody 2 years ago and it is getting worse instead of better with no end in sight.