Your friend mirrors a lot about what is out there regarding shipping. Normal container vessels from China are being shipped at 10-20% capacity currently. There are plenty of articles with that information around.
The Chinese gov’t is lying about the real stats. Notice also the Hong Kong protests have suddenly stopped?
Logistics & retail will certainly be impacted everywhere.
Hong Kong protests have not stopped. The media is simply picking up on the virus as the story coming out of China instead.
Our grocery stores will remain stocked and there is plenty of fuel to drive everyone around and heat everyone’s homes. For manufacturers who failed to listen to POTUS who has been telling them to shift their supply chains since 2016, yeah, life will suck. For California which makes a lot of money out of their ports, yeah, there are problems. Might not be a bad idea for truckers to check out the options in Norfolk or Galvaston.