Round-the-Clock
Every day, all day.
Literally.
The Port of Long Beach is transitioning to operating 24/7 to clear the backlog.
Despite a cooldown in consumer spending, this past month was busiest July on record surpassing July 2021 by a slim 0.13%.
“We are continuing to seek solutions to improve efficiency as a record-breaking number of containers move through the Port,” said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero.
The port is on a streak here, setting monthly records for 6/7 months of 2022, up 4.6% from last year.
Hopefully the round-the-clock operations will help the port catch up on the backlog!
Source: JOC
From Coast to Coast
The NY-NJ ports and the LA-LB ports have been dealing with empty container issues. Ocean carriers have been prioritizing imports so the issue of the empties has fallen on the trucking services.
When drayage carriers attempt to return an empty to the terminal, they often get told on-route that there is no space on the marine terminal forcing them to hold on to it or rent space in a yard.
Truckers have been doubly slammed because while their chassises are being held up by empties, they are simultaneously being fined by ocean carriers for demurrage fees because they don’t have the equipment to pick up containers sitting on the dock.
So you’re thinking, maybe they should just send the ocean carriers the bill?!
Well…
Despite the many attempts to bill the ocean carriers the charges incurred in the process, requests for compensation have been ignored or rejected leaving truckers to absorb the costs.
So while the NY-NJ ports have set in place new regulations to start fining ocean carriers per diem this coming month for containers dwelling at the port and the LA-LB ports contemplating the same thing, the FMC is planning to investigate the matter.
Source: JOC
Just in Jeopardy
Seems like the US has ruffled some feathers with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. She was the highest-ranking US official to visit Taipei which China considers part of its own territories in the last 25 years. Chinese authorities called the move ‘provocative.’
Pelosi’s visit seems to have complicated the geopolitics with China as President Joe Biden weighs the future of tariffs on more than $300 billion in goods from the US rival. The tariffs were put in place by Trump in 2018 after an investigation concluded China stole intellectual property from American companies and forced them to transfer technology.
The duties covered goods including industrial inputs such as microchips and chemicals, and consumer merchandise such as apparel and furniture. While there’s been no direct indication of which duties may be removed, senior administration officials have said reducing tariffs on household items could help ease a surge in the US cost of living.
Consumer prices climbed 8.5% in July from a year before, down from the four-decade high of 9.1% in June, but still a pace that remains far faster than wage gains - eroding households’ purchasing power.
Soaring inflation has eroded support for the Biden administration in public surveys, endangering Democratic fortunes in November’s midterm congressional elections.
Source: AJOT