US port bottleneck brings importers Christmas forward

In the port of Los Angeles, Christmas arrived in June when importers rushed to anticipate the traffic jam caused by the pandemic, which has disrupted global shipping, and now the job is 24 hours.

The port, the largest container terminal in North America, began working 24 hours a day Thursday after the White House intervened to address bottlenecks that complicate trade and raise prices.

Even so, a dozen ships with thousands of containers remain anchored in the bay, waiting for a space in the crowded docks. Some wait more than ten days.

As retailers and manufacturers scramble to circumvent blockages at ports, some turned to Rickenbacker, a dedicated freight airport whose location in Columbus, Ohio offers quick access to major highways, allowing truckers to reach almost half of the population of USA already a third of those in Canada in one day.

“We’re busy,” said Gene Seroka CEO of the Port of Los Angeles. Americans “don’t go to ball games. We don’t go to the movies or the opera. We are buying products. Whether at our large retailers or online, those products need to be replenished. “

Cut chains

Economies closed for part of the last year by governments trying to curb the coronavirus are reopening and demand is booming, but supply is struggling to catch up

Globalization spawned supply chains that stretch from resource extraction in places like Australia to production in Asian factories and buyers in the West.

At each stage, the goods are loaded into containers and transported on ships, trains and trucks through ports and stations.

If one link fails, the entire chain stops. During the pandemic it happened to almost everyone. And as the United States begins to normalize, the effects persist.

“Everything is delayed. All the ships are in the ocean, ”said Tony Nguye, a truck driver for nearly ten years. “This year is terrible. I’ve never seen this before, ”he adds.

Due to bottlenecks, US importers started their preparations for the Christmas shopping season early. When people prepared for the boreal summer, they carried Christmas items and toys.

“Importers started loading Christmas purchases in June; two and a half months before, ”he said.

“The American importer made up a large part of their inventory during the holiday season, earlier than we have seen in years past,” Seroka explained to CNN earlier this month.

Global impact

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned on Tuesday that changes in the slaughter chains are making products more expensive. In the United States, consumer prices rose more than 5% in the 12 months to September.

There are many factors behind the lack of raw materials and finished goods that affects retailers.

Also influencing are forced factory closures due to COVID-19 restrictions, an unexpected increase in demand for some goods, changes in consumer behavior and lack of work.

But the delay of the American ports has been a preponderant fact.

Nowhere is that more evident than in the neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the main gateways to Asia, where thousands of containers are stacked, processed and organized every day.

Every year a quarter of a billion dollars in goods pass through the Port of Los Angeles.

“What happens in Los Angeles and other ports on the West Coast reverberates across the country,” explained Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition.

The World Bank estimates that 8.5% of the world’s containers are detained in or near those ports.