Smooth operations

Qi Qi, an associate professor at Guangzhou Civil Aviation College in Guangdong province, said: "Smooth logistics are crucial for relaunching production. In order to ensure output, plants need to ship in raw materials and ship out products, enabling enterprises along the industrial chain to collaborate smoothly."

There has been an obvious improvement in logistics services, especially after the central government's call in the middle of last month for efforts to keep industrial and supply chains stable, Qi said.

"With the joint efforts of the government and all parties involved, we have recently seen many advances in logistics, including vital raw materials and facilities transported by Eastern Air Logistics, the freight unit of parent company China Eastern Air Holding. This has made the recovery of related industrial chains possible during the pandemic," Qi added.

At 1:12 am on May 9, an Eastern Air Logistics, or EAL, chartered cargo flight from the Japanese city of Osaka landed at Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The flight carried 41 metric tons of resources－20 tons of raw materials urgently needed by high-tech enterprises and 21 tons of equipment and facilities－h(huán)elping hightech enterprises in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta region restore production, according to EAL.

In addition, Yan Feixiang, deputy general manager of EAL's marketing division, said 45 tons of raw materials for high-tech enterprises were transported from South Korea and Japan by EAL from May 1 to May 8.

Thanks to sufficient preparation work, the shipments were completed with a high degree of efficiency, Yan added.

Early this month, EAL was operating about 100 cargo flights a week nationwide, a rise of 43 percent from early April. Weekly cargo throughout rose by 56 percent.

At Shanghai's two airports, EAL handled a total of 40,551 tons of cargo and mail in the first half of this month, a rise of just over 69.6 percent month-on-month.

Yan said: "With more key foreign trade enterprises appearing on Shanghai's 'white list' for resuming business operations, we will allocate additional cargo resources to help them. We are also working flat out to ensure industrial and supply chains flow smoothly."

Shanghai Pudong International Airport handles an average of 123 cargo flight arrivals and departures each day. In the two weeks from May 1 to 14, the airport's average daily cargo throughput reached above 5,500 tons, a rise of just over 72.8 percent from the same period of April, according to the Shanghai Airport Authority.

Medical imaging and radiotherapy equipment maker Shanghai United Imaging Healthcare Co has witnessed the supply chain improvements.

Zhang Qiang, the company's chairman, said, "This month, logistics services from Changzhou and Kunshan in Jiangsu province have become smoother, and several of our suppliers are on the white list to resume operations."