Backlog of cargo ships at southern California ports reaches an all-time high

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Backlog of cargo ships at southern California ports reaches an all-time high

The supply chain crisis continues to overwhelm US ports as the Biden administration has vowed to expand operations

Dani Anguiano in Los Angeles
@dani_anguiano
Wed 20 Oct 2021 23.13 BST

The backlog of cargo ships in southern California reached an all-time high this week as a supply chain crisis continues to overwhelm America’s busiest port complex.

On Tuesday more than 100 ships were waiting to unload thousands of containers outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The backlog has seen dozens of ships idling in the waters outside the ports for weeks, and the bottleneck is expected to continue into next year.

The Biden administration has pledged to expand port operations to address the mounting problems amid an overwhelming demand for imported consumer products and a shortage of trucks, drivers and warehouse workers.

“These issues go through the entire chain, from ship to shelf,” Pete Buttigieg, the transportation secretary, told ABC7. “That’s why we’re not just working with the ports. It’s the truckers, the rail companies, the operators and also those retail companies that are at the other end of those supply chains.”

The Biden administration announced last week that the port of Los Angeles would move to 24/7 operations to ease the backlog and that major companies, including Walmart, FedEx and UPS, would intensify operations to get goods shipped across the US faster. Meanwhile, the port of Long Beach had already been experimenting with a 24/7 pilot program. Union Pacific has expanded to 24/7 rail service at its San Pedro facility.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/20/supply-chain-crisis-california-ports-cargo-ships

[PortTack]

1. Read here the other day, the biggest part of this is America's spending!

Buy more stuff! Yikes..why?

[global1]

2. Does Anyone Know If They Have A Listing Of Everything That Is Aboard Each Ship - Why?.....

because - maybe they can prioritize the ships and bring in those with the most critically short products in first.

This way they might be able to ease some of the product shortages faster.

I'm sure that not all the items on these ships are as critically short as others.

[DemReadingDU]

3. Setting up Baltimore as alternative

10/21/21 About a decade ago, the Port of Baltimore underwent an expansion, dredging the channel and investing in the supersized Chinese-made cranes so the port could accommodate much bigger ships. William Doyle, the port's executive director, says that expansion continues.
more...
https://www.npr.org/2021/10/21/1047891622/as-shipping-woes-drag-on-businesses-search-for-alternatives

[Farmer-Rick]

4. Capitalism raises it's ugly, inefficient, cruel and destructive head yet again

First, alot of people are making big bucks by throwing a monkey wrench into the wheels of transportation. They can raise their prices skyhigh and hide inventory to gouge customers. Capitalist are always trying to find ways to slow down supplies so they can reduce competition and raise prices. That's what monopolies are all about.

Second, in 2017 and earlier, ports went through a consolidation. Capacity was restructured and reduced; excess capacity was eliminated. Now that capitalist maneuver has come back to bite them just like when they reduced the capacity of hospitals.Oh no, no one could have seen this coming.

And third, is it really smart to off shore production of most everything? People talk about the supply "chain". But it really isn't a chain so much as a rubber band. When you stretch it too far, it breaks and comes back to slap you in the face. If we had manufacturing capacity here in the US, we could just increase production and truck loads. But how do we get China to increase production? Will Vietnam cancel their lock down to accommodate our shortages? Seems to me Unions pointed out this flaw before the US started handing out tax cuts for moving jobs off shore......way off shore......way, way off shore.....snap.