Tugboats guide a container ship at the Yangshan Deepwater Port, Shanghai. Ji Haixin/Getty Images

Countries are taking emergency action to stop the coronavirus -- but these measures are also hitting shipping companies hard, and threaten to disrupt global supply chains.

China's role in shipping: About 80% of the world's goods trade by volume is carried by sea, and China is home to seven of the 10 busiest container ports.

These ports handle shipping for goods ranging from cars and machinery to clothes and other everyday items.

But with China keeping factories shut and workers at home, shipping companies are reducing the number of ships between China and the rest of the world.

What this means: Some vessels can't get into Chinese ports. Others are stuck in dock, waiting for workers to return to ports so that construction and repairs can be completed, experts say.

Other ships are idling in "floating quarantined zones," as countries like Australia and Singapore refuse to allow ships that have called at Chinese ports to enter until the crew has been declared virus-free.

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