The coronavirus epidemic is upending the carefully calibrated logistics of global shipping, as plunging exports from China disrupt the trade of American goods, especially farm products such as fruit and meat destined for Asia.

Congestion at Chinese ports and interrupted sailings have squeezed space on China-bound vessels and created an imbalance of the 40-foot long refrigerated containers used to ship fruit, meats and other perishables on three-week voyages across the Pacific, with many stuck on the China side.

The traffic jam is pushing up transportation prices for U.S. exporters and sowing turmoil on the heels of a painful trade war.

Shipping volumes out of China plummeted in February as factory shutdowns in the wake of the epidemic crimped industrial production. Containership operators have canceled nearly 60 trans-Pacific sailings to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, Calif., in the first quarter and more than 110 to all of North America. Normally there are about 200 sailings of container ships across the Pacific a month.

That means fewer ships are available to make the return journey east, and the normal turnover of containers has stalled.