By Gavin Maguire, Muyu Xu and Xie Yu
April 25 (Reuters) - A wave of COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai presents the biggest test yet for investors, trading companies and logistics managers trying to follow China's economy after the government restricted firms from releasing real-time data.
As China's most populous city struggles to emerge from weeks of crippling coronavirus curbs, companies can no longer see how goods are moving in and out of the key port as a result of a recent data law that cracked down on data sharing.
Industrial barometers from crude oil inventories at import terminals to high-frequency container throughput at ports were widely available previously, offering a real-time window on the world's second-biggest economy unhampered by the delays and possible distortions of official economic data.
But since China’s Personal Information Protection Law went into effect in November, crucial sources of information about the world's biggest exporting nation have gone dark.
Shipping companies and brokers have resorted to less accurate satellite-based tracking to monitor port delays. Traffic data to gauge truck shipping and commerce is no longer available. Traders track port activity by phone calls or even hand-counting ships.
That lack of visibility will affect every other link in China's globe-spanning supply chains as work gradually resumes, the flow of goods picks up and shippers seek to clear traffic jams off China's east coast.
"We are no longer able to obtain some of the high-frequency data, like daily cargo turnover at ports, railway and air traffic passenger data," said Dong Chen, head of Asia macroeconomic research at Pictet Wealth Management.
"Some of the data became monthly basis only," Chen said. "We just have to deal with what it is."
The Cyberspace Administration of China and the Ministry of Transport did not respond to requests for comment on the impacts of the data law.
IN THE DARK
The data law is the latest in what accountancy PwC calls "one of the most stringent regulatory regimes many multinationals will encounter." The measures limit how domestic and foreign organisations can collect and use data, affecting every company operating in China.
Organisations monitoring industrial or commercial activity in China must comply with strict rules on data classification, storage, cross-border transfers, transparency and user consent management before they may publish such data to clients.
As a result, some data providers have suspended or ceased publishing data or moved it behind pay walls.