West Coast Ports Breaking Under Weight of Activity

LONG BEACH, CA – As the U.S. economy begins to thaw from a frigid year-long global shutdown due to COVID-19, one sign of optimism is pointing to another sign of frustration. The twin ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are dealing with an unprecedented surge of traffic, with Long Beach experiencing 22 percent growth in January on top of an already impressive 23 annual growth rate for the fourth quarter of 2020. The downside is that the ports are understaffed and overwhelmed leading to massive delays, where it takes four times longer to unload the cargo thus causing backups for the U.S. infrastructure – including trucking and exports. The supply-chain disruptions have been a staple of the ports for six months, leading to a slow return of containers back to Asia and also forcing groups like the American Seed Trade Association (ASTA) to call on Congress and the Biden Administration for assistance. The agriculture community, they say, is concerned with unfair and unreasonable practices by ocean carriers and marine terminal operators leading to rejection of export bookings in favor of sending empty containers back to Asia; burdensome detention and demurrage fees when the circumstances are out of the shipper’s control; and unpredictable export receiving dates. China’s COSCO Shipping Corp recently delivered nearly 500 special-size (53 foot) containers to the West Coast in hopes of easing the situation.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)