Longshoreman union or new foreign slip / pier owners may both be interested in causing an emergency…
It’s part of fight with union and new pier owners that are trying to cut costs and increase automation, where union just wants more money.
And with an emergency more outside pressure is being brought to bear that may cause on side to blink from their game of chicken.
The lack of work by the longshoreman union at nights and weekends seems to be due to a contract, and the pier owners don’t want to pay the 1.5 to 2x wages.
Ships are also waiting outside Chinese ports, but this seems to be due to Covid protocols and power issues.
There has been a lack of upgrades to the So Ca ports.
All the economic incentives appear designed to snowball problems when things get out of whack. It's just too bad that there are no conservative jurisdictions on the left coast that could scale up and clear the logjam. Florida's DeSantis made the public appeal to ship there instead, but the distance to East Asia drives up the costs to get there in the first place.
I have been wondering about this myself. My response here in not going to be helpful -- just questions. I don't know what the costs are for having to wait a day, a week, a month to have a ship offloaded. I also don't know what the fuel costs are or how much is actually expected from a shipper's point of view for costs to sit awaiting an offload. Finally, I have no idea how long it takes to sail from the west coast to Florida via the Panama Canal, or whether the ships are too large to navigate the canal. But, it does seem like it would be less expensive to send ships through to Florida than sitting waiting in LA harbor. So, does this actually increase the costs any more, referencing your question above, than what we are seeing happen now? Any shipping magnates out there to answer these questions?
The has been a reduction in the amount of ships, but increase in ship size to decrease costs due to Covid early impact. The larger ships take longer to unload.
And the LA ports take 2x as long to move a container as more modern ports.
And with the increase in just in time, supply chains became more fragile.
I have mixed feelings on the port snafu. A winner is American factories. China and other exporters have increased costs.
Finally found the article I read about the third rail that can’t be talked about…
https://www.joc.com/port-news/port-productivity/us-port-congestion-solutions-bump-third-rail-labor_20210413.html
A guess…
Longshoreman union or new foreign slip / pier owners may both be interested in causing an emergency…
It’s part of fight with union and new pier owners that are trying to cut costs and increase automation, where union just wants more money.
And with an emergency more outside pressure is being brought to bear that may cause on side to blink from their game of chicken.
The lack of work by the longshoreman union at nights and weekends seems to be due to a contract, and the pier owners don’t want to pay the 1.5 to 2x wages.
Ships are also waiting outside Chinese ports, but this seems to be due to Covid protocols and power issues.
There has been a lack of upgrades to the So Ca ports.
Apparently a mega-container port in Mexico has been in the works for... 9 years?
https://gcaptain.com/mexicos-900-million-mega-container/
Cheers
All the economic incentives appear designed to snowball problems when things get out of whack. It's just too bad that there are no conservative jurisdictions on the left coast that could scale up and clear the logjam. Florida's DeSantis made the public appeal to ship there instead, but the distance to East Asia drives up the costs to get there in the first place.
I have been wondering about this myself. My response here in not going to be helpful -- just questions. I don't know what the costs are for having to wait a day, a week, a month to have a ship offloaded. I also don't know what the fuel costs are or how much is actually expected from a shipper's point of view for costs to sit awaiting an offload. Finally, I have no idea how long it takes to sail from the west coast to Florida via the Panama Canal, or whether the ships are too large to navigate the canal. But, it does seem like it would be less expensive to send ships through to Florida than sitting waiting in LA harbor. So, does this actually increase the costs any more, referencing your question above, than what we are seeing happen now? Any shipping magnates out there to answer these questions?
Nobody wants to talk about it, but the dock workers union is dead set against automation.
https://ilaunion.org/2021/05/latest-long-beach-terminal-automation-draws-ilwu-backlash/
The has been a reduction in the amount of ships, but increase in ship size to decrease costs due to Covid early impact. The larger ships take longer to unload.
And the LA ports take 2x as long to move a container as more modern ports.
And with the increase in just in time, supply chains became more fragile.
I have mixed feelings on the port snafu. A winner is American factories. China and other exporters have increased costs.
Yes, I've read that about the LA ports.
Additionally, California has activated rules (laws?) that exacerbate the problem. As pointed out in a couple of American Thinker articles (https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/10/probable_causes_for_the_supply_chain_mess_in_california_ports.html), California a) requires newer trucks/engines (environmental concerns), and b) an employment law (AB5) that essentially eliminates independent truckers.
Sounds like the makings for a resurgence in domestic production