Tag Archives: ports

Empty containers become a focal point in push to ease Los Angeles port congestion

Posted on January 27, 2022 by | Leave a comment

The Port of LA has too many empty containers sitting around. They are taking up space that could be moved to ease the congestion in the terminals.

But terminals can’t be made to clear the empties. And ocean carriers may not be in a hurry to move them out to pick up more cargo. It’s almost as cheap to simply build new containers for the exports in China.

So what to do? That’s what the Port and the terminal operators are wrrestling with. They can’t all be made into container houses. And it seems we are seeing refusals of ag exports using them.

Perhaps we should consider scrapping them and resell the steel, as we do with old ships. The Port could charge the container owner for the scrapping work, and keep the scrap steel money.

It’s not just emissions from container shipping that have sustainability problems. Too many containers littering the landscape is not sustainable either. It’s as if your Amazon packages arrived daily, but you had nowhere to dump the boxes; soon your house would be full of cardboard. And unlike containers, the Amazon boxes fold up!!

If ocean carriers and the container shipping business are serious about ESG concerns, stopping dumping empty containers on the importing countries seems like an easy place to start to improve things

Published Nov. 17, 2021 Edwin Lopez

https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/empty-containers-ease-congestion-port-of-los-angeles/610171/

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New York approaches biggest US container port title as west coast imports flatline

Posted on January 24, 2022 by | Leave a comment

Why are people choosing New York/New Jersey to import containers?

One concern is the congestion and delay, averaging 18 days according to the article, at the West Coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Apparently throughput has reached a max there, and is unlikely to improve much.

Actually, ‘approaches’ is a good word. New York’s throughput is still below Los Angeles, by 411,000 to 417,000. But the trend in LA is down, markedly, and the trend in NY is up, so maybe a switch will happen soon. LA doesn’t have many short-term options for improving throughput.

Another concern of shippers is the possibility of labor actions on the West Coast. Historically, longshoreman unions and port terminal representatives have been confrontational on the West Coast. Since the ports are biggest, strikes there or slowdowns would have a serious effect on commerce. and that’s the point of strikes and slowdowns– to bring maximum pressure on the port and terminal representatives to make concessions. It is likely that there will be some kerfuffle. But it’s not clear that anyone wants a total stoppage or serious constriction of traffic. And it’s a major political nightmare too. Presidents in the past have declared states of emergency to keep people at work and the cargo moving. So I think something will be worked out.

When will New York/New Jersey reach its congestion threshhold, and ships start backing up?

It could be good news that the flush of demand for imports may be abating a bit as shippers think through how to realign their supply needs to reduce the pressure on their supply chains. More regular and predictable supply may be the outcome.

By Mike Wackett 24/01/2022

New York nudges biggest US container port title as west coast imports flatline – The Loadstar
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Posted in Labor Economics, Logistics, Ports, Shipping, Supply Chains

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Another innovation to move China exports

Posted on January 18, 2022 by | 1 comment

FedEx Freight has chartered some small ships and arranged with a few shippers to ship full 53-foot containers manufactured in China to the US Port Hueneme, CA. Port Hueneme is a small facility jointly used with the US military. Cargo use is allowed when there is no overriding military activity.

Doing this will allow FedEx Freight to bypass the logjams at the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. It also allows FedEx Freight to put the containers on its rail network for long-distance transport to inland locations. FedEx Freight is mostly an LTL service; ultimately most of the containers will be unloaded at a FedEx depot for the last mile of transport.

Other firms have been following similar strategies recently. It’s one way of getting past the bottlenecks in the LA/LB area. That should help FedEx customers. But the ships are small, and the volume will not be large. It will also produce more empty containers here in the US, and FedEx will need to figure out where to put them and how to get them back to China or elsewhere for another trip.

To the extent the bottleneck is due to surplus empty containers and a shortage of chassis, and irrational appointment behavior for delivery of empties, all this does is route a bit of cargo by another path. But no one should be criticized for examining and using alternate strategies in these hectic times.

Eric Kulisch, Air Cargo Editor Friday, January 14, 2022

FedEx Logistics charters vessels to move China exports, rail containers – FreightWaves
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