What’s this about the huge rise in freight rates Shanghai to Europe and to the Mediterranean?
It’s a startling rise, but also note that the price Shanghai to the West Coast is much cheaper than Shanghai to the East Coast.
Since last week, rates from Shanghai to Northwest Europe and the Mediterranean increased by 328 percent and 298 percent, respectively.
This is an older (May 2015) article about the congestion situation at the port of New York/New Jersey and its relation to container shipping alliances. It’s still true by and large. It is based on a Journal Of Commerce (JOC) article. Chassis are still to blame in large part at these ports. I’m sure there’s more to it if you’re inside. But the point is clear.
Ports and Terminal operators need to address these downstream issues that affect how reliably cargo gets to end customers, and so do the ocean carriers.
You might be disappointed to hear that port congestion probably won’t ease as much as you expected despite the agreement between the IWU and the PMA.
Posted in Logistics, Ports, Production Operations, Shipping, Supply Chains, Trucking
More angst in trucking at Los Angeles and Long Beach. Are terminals really locking out certain trucking companies who are locked in struggles with employees who are seeking employee and union status?
It’s illegal of course, but clearly those drayage firms are not able to offer the same guarantee of service as others who are not experiencing conflict.
The question, from a labor economics standpoint, is whether the terminal actions are somehow putting them in league with the unions. Remember, earlier when the Clean Trucks program was under discussion, the ports wanted to make everyone a union driver, working for a large company. That way, the ports thought they could insure the firms would buy new trucks to modernize the fleet– they had sufficient capital, and that would reduce the need for subsidies. But owner-operators complained bloody murder, the case went to the US Supreme Court, and it was ruled that drivers could not be compelled to be union members or employees.
So terminal operators had better be careful. It seems to me that the current situation could be interpreted as a sort of tacit collusion with the Teamsters’ union. Teamsters have a major share of the unionized drivers, and certainly are the biggest labor union player in the debates at these ports.
Posted in Labor Economics, Logistics, Ports, Trucking
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