2/Ocean shipping containers do not typically venture far from the harbors. What most people see on the roads and highways are not intermodal containers, but 40 or 53ft trailers. The material from overseas is offloaded at sites close to the port and repacked for delivery.
3/When you hear about a truck shortage, it is not one of trucks & drivers. For a truck to load, it has to bring a chassis to load a container on. Usually, it has an empty to return. As the terminals are full, there is little room to store them, making moving boxes slow.
4/This delay in offloading the empty & loading a full one means that drayage drivers who normally make 2-3 trips a day, are only making 1. Adding more trucks & drivers does nothing to alleviate this, but only adds to the congestion & pushes drivers away due to less pay.
5/So, what is the solution?
The answer is simple, but requires coordination.
1️⃣ Identify a large area near the ports that can be used as a temporary empty storage yard.
2️⃣ Route drivers to facility to offload, check-in w/boxes (waive detention fees) & clear their chassis.
6/ Continued
3️⃣Activate National Guard or Reserve unit to initially staff & equipment facility to offload and track empties. This can be phased over to contract operation concurrently.
4️⃣Less boxes in terminals & no need to offload chassis, the turnaround in ports will improve.
7/This will improve the throughput in the ports, but it will not help with the situation in the warehouses and distribution centers where the containers are going from the ports. They are at capacity, and working limited hours.
Action has to take place, simultaneously.
8/This is not new, as myself, @man_integrated and @typesfast have all advocated for actions similar to this.
@mattschrap@harbortruckers identified empty containers as the issue. We breakdown the discharge of ships, why empties are an issue & a proposed solution.
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One of the most under reported stories is the attempt by China to grow their influence in the shipping industry for their seafarers. Since many ships call at China, this new restriction makes employing Chinese nationals more challenging.
Top 5 seafarers:
1️⃣🇵🇭
2️⃣🇷🇺
3️⃣🇮🇩
4️⃣🇨🇳
5️⃣🇮🇳
China’s Covid Zero Policy Towards Seafarers Escalates Supply Chain Crisis
"China’s increasingly extreme Covid Zero policies are standing in the way of a full recovery for the shipping industry and prolonging a crisis that’s snarled ports."
1⃣Is The U.S. Moving Cargo And Filling The Shelves?
2⃣Container shipping lines smash profits
3⃣Port Congestion Eases in Asia
4⃣Vancouver rail service could resume this week 5⃣LNG carrier spot rates hit new all-time highs
1⃣Is The U.S. Moving Cargo And Filling The Shelves?
2/One of the points made is that imports have returned to 2018 and below 2020 levels.
However, I think this may be more of an indicator that the ports are slowing down their offloads as they are trying to clear out the terminals; as indicated by the dwell report.
3/@PortofLA & @portoflongbeach is reporting ship arrivals as down; but there are new ships holding out past 150 miles.
For example, CMA CGM Topaz is 350 miles off coast and STOPPED; showing a destination of LA for today. Yet, in the SIGNAL Port Optimizer, she is not listed.
1/Improving and Tracking Supply Chains Link by Link
To rectify the #supplychain
situation, it appears that @POTUS
approach is to start a blog (I am sure a podcast is soon to follow) that links to three metrics.
The first aims to discuss the changing nature of American spending - service vs goods - and compares it to the Recession of 2008. If they compare to the Great Depression of 1929, it would look even better.
3/Ships at Anchor
This is the metric that they want to fix because it is one that is visual. But it also at the wrong end of the supply chain to fix. The issue is on the inland distribution side, as demonstrated by the pile up of boxes in the terminals and afloat = throughput.