Takeaways Beat Dining Out as China Grinds Slowly Back to Life

(Bloomberg) -- Outside the entrance of a popular hot-pot restaurant south of Beijing, Ma Xueyuan, wearing a mask, is selling ready-made food boxes and says the establishment is also welcoming people to come in and dine.

“But only two guests are allowed to sit at each table, even if it’s a group of three, and there has to be at least a meter between them,” said Ma, citing government regulations designed to stop the spread of the deadly coronavirus. Even then, most people prefer to collect the boxes and eat at home, she said.

Takeaways are also popular at another busy restaurant some five kilometers away, though customers have to register their names and mobile numbers before being served, according to the owner, who gave his name only as Chen.

Elsewhere in China, ports are ramping up operations as trains and buses take migrant workers to coastal areas, and construction sites are coming back to life. More cars are on the streets of Beijing, though everyone is still obliged to wear masks and have their temperatures constantly checked. In Shanghai, metro passenger traffic on Monday was up 17% on a week earlier.

The pace of recovery in outside dining, travel and port movements in the world’s second-largest economy and top consumer of food commodities will be crucial for determining global prices of agricultural products such as beef, palm oil and soybeans in the coming weeks and months.

Confidence Boost

Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the epicenter of the outbreak in Wuhan on Tuesday for the first time since the disease emerged, in a trip meant to show confidence that his government had managed to stem the spread of the virus.

Xi’s visit came after a steady drop in infections, with just a few new cases on Tuesday, and a slight easing of restrictions in Hubei to allow some people to travel within the province. Analysts expect more relaxations in transport and business curbs to follow. Wuhan has been quarantined since Jan. 23.

In a further sign of recovery, Haidilao International Holding Ltd., China’s largest hotpot chain, said it will reopen 85 stores in 15 cities from March 12 as it gradually resumes operations. The chain shut about 550 restaurants in the country in late January because of the virus outbreak.

Port congestion is easing. Beilun port in Ningbo, south of Shanghai, is working overtime to inspect frozen meat shipments after more than 500 containers were stranded, the General Administration of Customs said Tuesday. Local customs cleared 294 containers since mid-February. Huangdao port in Shandong province has set up a special team to clear shipments.

Some port operations are estimated to be running at only 70% to 80% because workers in Hubei province, the center of the epidemic, are unable to travel, said Li Qiang, chief analyst with Shanghai JC Intelligence Co., a consulting firm. “We expect the situation could return to normal by the end of March,” he said.

China State Railway Group has run almost 250 special and direct trains to take migrant workers to coastal areas from inland provinces, as part of measures to ease labor shortages, company official Huang Xin said at the weekend.

Still, about half the migrant workforce has not yet returned to the cities, Wei Baigang, an agriculture ministry official told a press conference. China has 290 million such workers, most of whom are farmers from poor areas.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Niu Shuping in Beijing at nshuping@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Anna Kitanaka at akitanaka@bloomberg.net, James Poole, Ainslie Chandler

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With assistance from Bloomberg