Authorities are carrying out mandatory mass testing to identify cases, with those who test positive forced into designated quarantine facilities.

The logistics problems threaten to disrupt the city’s manufacturing sector, which includes the factory of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation – the biggest chip fabrication plant in China.

Disruption at Shanghai’s port is likely to ease port backlogs in other parts of the world in the short term, but a downturn in manufacturing would add further pressure to producers elsewhere in the world that source components from China.

ONE’s chief executive, Jeremy Nixon, said this week that about 10pc of the global container ship fleet is affected by disruption in China and elsewhere.

Analysts at metals trader Marex said the impact was already being felt on commodity markets.

“With Shanghai in lockdown and logistics around the country being difficult, warehouses have not been able to move goods as easily, and downstream consumers and rod mills have been throttled by a lack of physical deliveries,” they told clients.

China is expected to cut interest rates as Beijing tries to shield its economy from the knock-on effects of its “zero Covid” strategy.

Its cabinet has pledged to use monetary tools at an “appropriate time”, warning risks have “intensified” as it struggles to contain Covid.

It did not expressly say an interest rate was coming, but its language has fueled expectations following poor recent economic data.

Survey data released last week showed Chinese manufacturing had undergone their biggest slump in output since the start of the pandemic during March.