I just dug into the legal mechanism by which the Biden Administration can intervene to prevent the port strike.

No way they can pull this off in time to avert the strike next Tuesday. It’s too late.

The strike is happening. The remaining variable is how long will it last. 🧵 Under the Taft-Hartley Act, specifically in the context of an emergency injunction to prevent a strike, the decision on whether to issue the injunction is made by a federal district court.

The biggest wild card in the presidential election that nobody’s talking about? The looming port strike that could shut down all East and Gulf Coast ports just 36 days before the election. 🧵 If the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) goes on strike, tens of thousands of businesses could miss the key Black Friday, Cyber Monday peak sales period.

1/ Canada’s two largest railways—Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC)—have locked out more than 9,000 workers after labor talks with the Teamsters union fell apart. The result? A total shutdown of Canada’s freight rail traffic, shaking the world’s 10th-largest economy. 🧵 2/ This rail stoppage is the result of months of tense negotiations between the railways and 9,300 engineers, conductors, and yard workers. Despite last-minute efforts to reach a deal, talks broke down just before the midnight deadline, leading to the lockout.

Over the past week, dozens of motor carriers in the Chicagoland area have been holding loads of cargo hostage in demand for what are effectively ransom payments. Insane that this is happening in 2024, or maybe organized crime brazenly operating is just part of life nowadays. 🧵 While these motor carriers are registered and maintain some operations in the U.S., there are likely affiliations with individuals in Eastern Europe. This is not the first time the group has committed these acts.

Global containerized ocean freight prices are surging to levels not seen since the pandemic supply chain crunch. Some key trade lane rates are up 140% since mid-December and increasing by the week. What’s happening, why, and what it means for businesses needing products moved? 🧵 The simplest answer for why prices are surging is that freight is one of the most inelastic markets in the entire global economy—brands rarely ship more stuff just because the price of freight is cheap, or less stuff because the price of freight is expensive.

A massive container ship crashed into the main bridge of Baltimore’s beltway this morning, causing total collapse to the bridge and cutting off the city’s container port from the global ocean. At least 6 people are missing. 🧵 The collision of the Dali, built in 2016 by Hyundai and operated by Maersk, took place around 3 am last night. If it had occurred during rush hour this likely would have caused much more loss of life.

https://twitter.com/BNONews/status/1772515766929097088

Flexport currently has 2206 TEUs on container ships that were expected to transit the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden sometime in the next 72 hours. Houthi rebels missile attacks on container ships at this vital maritime choke point have now put all those voyages and much else in global shipping into a state of uncertainty. 🧵 On Saturday, Houthi rebels in Yemen hit one of the MSC’s container ships the Palatium III with a missile and narrowly missed ships from Hapag and Maersk on Friday. All 3 liners and several others announced an immediate pause to ships transiting the Suez Canal /2

Today I'm remembering my great grandfather Clare Koogler (left) who fought with his brother Bill (right) in the Meuse–Argonne offensive that secured victory for the allies in WW1. They celebrated Armistice Day in Paris on Nov 11, 1918, the holiday we now call Veterans Day. Clare, who our family always called Pops, passed when I was 9 years old, and I still have many great memories of visiting him in New Mexico.

Every year for Fleet Week, employees at Lucasfilm, creators of Star Wars, take a day to draw wonderful sidewalk chalk art outside their headquarters in the Presidio of San Francisco. Thought I'd share this year's pieces since there's a 10% chance of rain today. 🧵

I'm thrilled to announce that Dave Clark will be Flexport’s next CEO. Dave Clark (@davehclark) officially starts on Sep 1, 2022 to become the CEO of Flexport and a member of our board. We will be Co-CEOs for six months after he joins. I'll then step into an Executive Chairman role and Dave will continue to be Flexport’s CEO.

With the rise of DALL-E, everybody will need a mascot. Mine is going to be a lion holding a globe.

Wheat prices 📈 Corn prices 📈

Flexport is organizing an airlift of humanitarian relief supplies to refugee centers in Eastern Europe. You can help by donating to pay for more flights at flexport.org/donate. 🧵👇 A humanitarian crisis is unfolding as over 1M people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, at below-freezing temperatures. Another 4M people are expected to leave in the weeks ahead. Refugee sites are already short of critical supplies due to the scale of the crisis. /2

A suite of reports from Flexport Research on the impact of the Ukraine crisis on supply chains. 🧵👇 1: A brief introduction to where Ukraine and Russia sit in the complex interconnected ecosystem that makes up global supply chains.
flexport.com/research/commo…

Ukraine and Russia are major players in the air cargo market, and not just because their locations put them on the most direct flight routes from Asia to Europe. 🧵👇 Antonov is a Ukranian aircraft manufacturer, makers of the largest cargo airplane in the world, the Antonov An-225 and it's smaller but still huge cousin, the Antonov An-124. /1

Internal note from Flexport's air team:

Team - Things are rapidly evolving in Europe as Russia advances on Ukraine. There will be impacts to aviation that could be far reaching but we do not know to what extent at this time. /1 What we do know is that the FAA and EASA have issued a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen/Air Missions) that essentially places all of Ukraine and Russian air space off limits to commercial flights due to severe safety risks. /2

The decline in ships waiting just offshore of Los Angeles/Long Beach continues to be touted as a sign that port congestion is easing — despite the fact that the true number of waiting ships has not actually declined.

…w-freightwaves-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.freigh… The ports just made the ships wait out at sea to avoid air pollution in LA. The overall queue, including container ships waiting out at sea is larger than ever.

Global supply chains are a mess. The world's logistics infrastructure has proven incapable of scaling to the demands of a global economy going through more chaotic evolution than ever. 1/ Prices for pretty much all logistics and supply chain services have reached all time highs while service levels and transit times have never been worse. 2/

Tomorrow the new fees for not picking up your containers on time at the Ports of LA-Long Beach go into effect. The fees go up by $100 everyday, so by Day 30 charges reach $46,500 per container. 1/n In my tweetstorm last week I called out all the reasons that it was so challenging for importers to find available chassis and get appointments to pick up containers at the port.

https://twitter.com/typesfast/status/1451673736877428742?s=20

2/n

What caused all the supply chain bottlenecks? Modern finance with its obsession with "Return on Equity." To show great ROE almost every CEO stripped their company of all but the bare minimum of assets. Just in time everything. No excess capacity. No strategic reserves. No cash on the balance sheet. Minimal R&D.