Tag Archives: supply chains

President Biden challenges private sector to tackle supply chain logjams

Posted on October 14, 2021 by | Leave a comment

Apparently the main action so far is to jawbone LA and Long Beach to open for more hours. The Executive Directors of the ports are in line with this.

But port governance gives them little actual power to open the terminals for longer hours. Ports are basically landlords, and have no operational control over the terminal operators, which are several different firms. It’s not clear what the Directors can do to change operations at these private firms.

Some announcements have been made, and it will be worth watching to see if any of the terminals do actually lengthen their hours of service. Doing so would help move cargo quicker, and that is certainly needed right now.

By Nick Savvides 14/10/2021

President Biden challenges private sector to tackle supply chain logjams – The Loadstar

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Posted in Logistics, Ports, Supply Chains

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OECD says shipping freight rates are driving G20 inflation

Posted on October 13, 2021 by | 2 comments

In case we didn’t notice it, shipping freight rate increases are the source of significant inflation throughout the 20 most developed countries. If you are complaining about inflation, point here.

The firms involved are passing the price rises on to consumers, resulting in higher prices. We may not be close to the end of the rises, either. We have not seen much to encourage a belief that the supply chain snafus will not continue and be disruptive for at least a year. No one seems to know what to do.

I fear even the choice of very large shippers to lease their own ships and avoid the traditional ocean container lines will not be all that easy. The extra ships will add to port delays, since they must load and unload just where the ocean shippers do. Ports are backed up, and also are running out of space for containers; and of course the driver shortage is preventing containers moving out fast.

Do we have to turn to rationing of scarce resources to get out of this dilemma, to make delivery predictable?

By Nick Savvides 13/10/2021

OECD says huge increases in shipping freight rates are driving G20 inflation – The Loadstar

Another source by Sam Chambers has some nice graphs: https://splash247.com/oecd-tracks-how-much-container-shippings-sky-high-freight-rates-are-contributing-to-global-inflation/

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Posted in Logistics, Shipping, Supply Chains

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Cosco offers faster, intermodal, alternative Asia-US route via Canada

Posted on October 8, 2021 by | 1 comment

The Asia-Prince Rupert, BC-Chicago run has a new entry. The claim is that even with Chicago rail delays, it is faster than going to LA/Long Beach. That could be true.

There’s a discussion of it here.

With Canadian Rails trying to take over the KCY line in the US, the route could perform even better.

By Martina Li in Taiwan 08/10/2021

Cosco offers faster, intermodal, alternative Asia-US route via Canada – The Loadstar

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Posted in Logistics, Ports, Rail, Shipping, Supply Chains

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