INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
For Chinese businessman Han Changming, disruptions to Red Sea freight are threatening the survival of his trading company in the eastern
province of Fujian.Han, who exports Chinese-made cars to Africa and imports off-road vehicles from Europe, told Reuters the cost of shipping
factories in places such as Turkey and Vietnam to mitigate the impact of the disruptions, adding to recent moves by Western countries to
reduce dependence on China amid geopolitical tensions.At stake for China now is the danger that other firms will follow suit and reassess
Chinese-made mechanical components to Europe
with a property crisis, weak consumer demand, a shrinking population and sluggish global growth.With Europe and Africa trade accounting for
Shipping times for some orders were delayed by up to several weeks, he said.Compounding the pain for some firms, the disruptions come as
many are navigating a logistics challenge ahead of Lunar New Year in February, when some 300 million migrant workers go on leave and almost
all factories in China shut, creating a scramble in the preceding weeks to get goods shipped.Mike Sagan, the Shenzhen-based vice president
for supply chains and operations at KidKraft, a maker of outdoor play equipment and wooden toys, said many European customers are slamming
supplies retailers including Walmart and Target.A worry for larger manufacturers, he said, is the snowball effect on smaller suppliers with
tight margins, as they would be among the last to receive payments but are critical to the supply chain.Rerouting vessels from the Red Sea -
the shortest route from Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal - around the Cape of Good Hope can add two weeks to shipping schedules, reducing
global container capacity and cleaving supply chains as it takes longer for vessels to return to ports to reload.That probably means delays
for goods scheduled to arrive on Western shelves in April or May
said Yang, adding that he had prepared raw materials that could not be returned because they had been processed
especially acute for companies that rely on just-in-time deliveries or that need to change their stock regularly.Another issue, said
