Shipping bottleneck at Los Angles / Long Beach

Some on the ground reporting - or rather on the boat. Interesting thread.

An update from Petersen, city of LB had a limit on how high containers could be stacked. Don’t know the details.

Here it is - was limited to two boxes high.

This is in regards to a couple of the different threads on LA/ LB.
For trucks/trains the Cal EPA required retrofitting or retirement of diesel engines. The cost 5 years ago was $20,000+ per engine. Today if you see an 18-wheeler on the highways of the US you will see a California EPA sticker on them. All California ports required trucks to meet this requirement thus putting older trucks/older drivers out of business.
Regards other old West Coast
Port news. Marine Highway getting under way - Business* - recordnet.com - Stockton, CA
Highway's trip ends too soon - Editorial - recordnet.com - Stockton, CA
Newer news.
Container shortage, Port of Oakland congestion to impact availability of holiday merchandise

So when do we start getting concerned about thermally unstable container/ISO cargo on these ships? Most of those have 30 or 60 day clocks from load to unload.

Currently 100+ ships at anchor off LA ports. Typical time at port is 2-3 days to load/offload containers. Even with 24/7 operations,they probably won’t be done until this time next year. Redirecting ships is not an option either as I understand. Where to go to, Mexico? Just stop sending ships.

It has come to this if this is true. Transport crisis.

But please don’t dump containers in neighborhoods like some people have been doing. Blocking driveways and emergency services. That has to stop.

While everybody is looking for somebody else to blame;

CMA CGM is offering incentive to consignees to pick up their import containers asap:

Don’t know if this will make any difference??:

Less containers being loaded in Ningbo means less containers arriving at LA/LB.

If it is any consolation; other ports have problems too:

Given the record breaking profits they can afford it.

" In 2021, the industry is forecast to make $150 billion. That’s a new record. In 2020, the industry brought in $25.4 billion, according to The Journal of Commerce."

Yes it make total sense; if the consignees doesn’t pick up their cargo in time the shipping company that brought it to the port must be punished.
Why don’t the consignees pick up their cargo??
Because the infrastructure to do so doesn’t function and there is a shortage of everything, incl. truck drivers.

But at least there is some good news, the Railway companies are making good money:

PS> Good news if you have shares in them.

Now if China would stop sending all this junk that they make and trick gullible Muricans into buying it there wouldn’t be any problem with the supply chain.

Looks like capitalism is functioning though. The system of “Supply and Demand” is working as it should.

Oh, did I mention that inflation is up because of the high prices that have to be charge to pay for all this + the tariffs that is imposed on everything imported from China?
(No, China doesn’t pay the tariffs and profit margins have to be kept.)

1 Like

Problem solved; US Congress has passed a Bill (bipartisan, believe it or not) that will regulate how foreign shipping companies operates and make sure that ships wait for export cargo before leaving US ports:

Of course it does not solve the problem of how import cargo gets from the port to the consignees, nor how the export cargo gets to the ports in time to get loaded on the ships without delays.

It doesn’t say how this can be enforced either. Are they going stop ships from leaving port when unloaded and no return cargo are ready and available to load?
Who are going to pay demurrage for ships waiting on cargo?

Shipping is an international venture, regulated by international laws and regulations, some dating back hundreds of years.

PS> US Congress does not have extraterritorial jurisdiction and US Courts does not have authority outside US territory. (Except on board US flag ships)

1 Like

US Short Sea/Inland Shipping is moving closer to reality:

This project is very much in my neck of the woods. I support the concept 100 percent. The key is to make sure there will be a demand for the service in order for it to succeed. With regards to Short Sea Shipping here in the US you can’t just build it and expect them to come. You pretty much need to know they will buy into it before building.

Proving the movement of cargo this way will save the various shippers (and their cargo) money and improve efficiency of operation will be the key.

Gee, that is a novel idea. Never seen that done anywhere else in the world.

I just hope they have figured out a way to do it without the longshoremen putting them out of business.

Longshoremen may not be an issue upriver from Baton Rouge.

I’ve always though that the way to start successful short sea shipping would be to buy a large trucking company that already has the customers and the dock to customer pickups and deliveries figured out.

The only big obstacle to short sea shipping is the longshoremen.

The Longshoremen International Union in St Louis is Local 1765.

Oh, I had no idea the longshoremen had penetrated the inland barge business that far upriver.

Short sea shipping isn’t going to be competitive with trucks unless they can avoid, or cut a special deal with, the longshoremen.

When they did a pilot project on barging containers from SF Bay to Sacramento, it failed because of longshore costs. IIRC, longshore costs were about double the tug and barge costs.

If cargo is moved, you can expect longshoreman are usually (but not always) involved. The ILA represents longshormen on Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, Great Lakes, major U.S. rivers, Puerto Rico and Eastern Canada. The ILWU represents longshoremen on the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii, Guam (I believe) and in British Columbia, Canada.

The teamsters have gotten into the game and have their own longshoremen affiliates. But they are a fairly minor presence on the waterfront in comparison.

What’s the latest number of container ships anchored waiting to offload at LA/LB?
Up north, I’m looking around Puget Sound and seeing none the past few days.