SHIPPING is at a virtual standstill in certain sectors as the industry struggles to deal the global health scare surrounding the coronavirus outbreak in China.

Initial concerns about post Chinese New Year delays have escalated and it is now clear that the impact across many sectors risks being much greater than anticipated.

The emergency has paralysed the Chinese repair industry just at the moment shipowners had crowded into the yards, it has disrupted schedules across all sectors, led to serious challenges for crew management, seen force majeure declared on major contracts and prompted a round of container services to be withdrawn, with lines now forecasting issues well into the second quarter of the year.

Market sentiment has been seriously spooked around the globe.

It’s a rapidly evolving story, so we’ve taken a few different angles on the issues being raised for shipping in this week’s podcast.

David Osler, our law and insurance expert, talks to Stephenson Harwood’s Hong Kong shipping partner Andrew Rigden Green about why shipowners need to be wary of contractual risk and understand the implications of legal terms such as force majeure and free pratique

We catch up with podcast regular and BIMCO chief analyst Peter Sand to get his views on the market fallout from coronavirus and where the key risk areas lie.

But we start with our China Editor Cichen Shen who, having just returned from mainland China, has been quarantined and locked out of Lloyd’s List towers in Hong Kong this week but has been busy taking the temperature of shipping operators across China as he reports daily on the emerging issues facing the industry.

Enjoy the podcast and don’t forget, you can now subscribe to the Lloyd’s List Podcast via iTunes and Spotify, as well as most other podcast providers. And make sure you are registered for a free account on Lloydslist.com so you can receive our Daily Briefing e-mail.