Chinese officials briefed the market on its Covid-19 prevention and control measures earlier today, and disclosed the vaccination rates among its elderly population is increasing and will continue to be the focus going forward. They said 65.8% of people above 80 have received booster shots, up from 40% as of 11 November, and that the one-shot vaccination rate for people above 60 years has exceeded 90%. The country is still in the process of approving its home-grown mRNA vaccine alternative, where the AWcorna looks to be leading in ongoing trials among other alternatives in development. The AWcorna vaccine received emergency approval for use in Indonesia just two months ago, but has yet to publish necessary trial data for approval in China. In connection with mRNA vaccine roll-out, the country is also completing several facilities to produce the vaccines once approvals are in place.

As we have highlighted before, the dry bulk shipping sector represents attractive exposure to the China reopening case. However, we continue to believe any reopening will be conducted in a controlled manner once the country is certain the potential virus spread will not cause excessive damage to the elderly population. Until then it remains a waiting game for the dry bulk sector to kick into overdrive.