Wuhan's status as a transport and manufacturing hub have fueled its economic rise and drawn comparisons with Chicago's role as a pivotal city in the center of a giant economy.

Now the fallout from its lockdown to contain the spread of a new SARS-like virus is set to be amplified if logistics networks and the auto industry are interrupted across the city of about 11 million people.

"Complicated supply chains and just-in-time production could mean that production outages in Wuhan factories have broader spillover effects," according to Shaun Roache, Asia-Pacific chief economist at S&P Global Ratings.