Container ship delays at the ports

[Greg]

An all-time high of 56 cargo ships are stuck waiting off the California coast, as shipping ports hit their 4th record backup in three weeks

The labor shortage, COVID-19, and holiday-buying surges are causing shipping disruptions and delays at two of the most important ports in the US.

www.businessinsider.com

This is interesting to me, as it applies to my job and hobbies as well. The backlog of container ships is causing delays in all kinds of industries. The company I work for (Union Pacific) actually stopped running container trains for about a week, to try catch up on the busy lines across the country.

All kinds of industry's are having supply issues getting their imported products into the States, I'm sure many of you have noticed issues.

What's crazy is that right now is when the big retailers are preparing for the Christmas rush, things at the Port are only going to get worse IMO.

 

[Hickey]

An all-time high of 56 cargo ships are stuck waiting off the California coast, as shipping ports hit their 4th record backup in three weeks

The labor shortage, COVID-19, and holiday-buying surges are causing shipping disruptions and delays at two of the most important ports in the US.

www.businessinsider.com

This is interesting to me, as it applies to my job and hobbies as well. The backlog of container ships is causing delays in all kinds of industries. The company I work for (Union Pacific) actually stopped running container trains for about a week, to try catch up on the busy lines across the country.

All kinds of industry's are having supply issues getting their imported products into the States, I'm sure many of you have noticed issues.

What's crazy is that right now is when the big retailers are preparing for the Christmas rush, things at the Port are only going to get worse IMO.

Xmas is gonna be wonky this year.

 

[Mouse]

This helps our inflation (not that it needs help).

 

[Evolved]

Xmas is gonna be wonky this year.

Absolutely it will! I work for a large wholesale company where the vast majority of our products are imported from countries all over the world. We have seen delays at ports both from the countries of origin and here domestically for over a year. It is about the worst it’s been currently and going to get worse. Just as a reference most retailers/suppliers are trying to rush products in to set the shelves for the holiday shopping rush. Some of our products are delayed by months for logistics reasons AND where some of our factories are located they were shut down due to COVID outbreaks over the past month or so. This means that empty shelves at retailers will not be uncommon this holiday season.

My personal theory is that retailers will have record low sales numbers this November and December but then have record January/February months from gift card sales. People are going to still want to buy gifts but because of empty shelves they will turn to gift cards. Then, the back log from logistics problems and getting stuff through customs will finally deliver in Q1 of next year allowing people to spend their gift cards.

We have already started our Christmas shopping knowing things might be tough this fall. That being said, we haven’t been that successful because we have young kids that change their minds weekly. So, return policies aren’t going to help us and may make Christmas at my house a little upsetting for my kids. I wish they were past the Santa believing portion of their lives to make it easier.

 

[4x4_Welder]

I'm not looking forward to this peak season in the least. My first peak here it topped out about 9000 packages a day, and only hit 10000 once or twice. We have now been over 10000 a day for 18 months, hit nearly 20000 last Christmas, and maybe once or twice a month will the count be below 10000. It's nuts. Volume is pretty much double, and I'm getting squeezed from both sides on my work time. The cars come in so late, and they start loading so early, that I really only have 5-6 hours a night to address all the maintenance and repair needs of 41 cars.

 

[Tonkaman]

One of our suppliers is now sailing down to Panama and j loading in the gulf because it’s faster than waiting on California docks.

Can you imagine the extra costs to do that? Fuel to sail an extra 7k miles, plus it’s like $1M to go through the canal right now!

 

[JeeperG]

I can say my work has been feeling the pinch of supply issues along with a labor shortage, we have over 800 "in process" trailers sitting outside waiting for parts, mostly wiring harnesses I'm told, they've cut back on our daily production and have a bunch of people working on the in process stuff to get it out, we need it under 300.
I've also been trying to get custom steel wheels made since February, haven't heard from wheel vintiques for awhile now, last I was told was they where waiting on materials, I need to start coming up with a plan B.

 

[Greg]

L.A. port to become 24-hour, 7-day-a-week operation to ease shipping backlog

President Joe Biden tried to reassure Americans on Wednesday that he can tame high inflation, announcing a deal to expand operations at the Port of Los Angeles as prices keep climbing and container…

ktla.com

It's OK guys, Biden to the rescue!

 

[Gravy]

One of our custom furniture suppliers is now quoting July on orders placed today.

 

[Greg]

It's going to be interesting when Union Pacific looses 30-40% of its employees on Dec 8th, due to the vaccine mandate... and the company is already running on skeleton crews. No trains to move the containers will be another hurdle.

 

[johngottfredson]

We have already started our Christmas shopping knowing things might be tough this fall. That being said, we haven’t been that successful because we have young kids that change their minds weekly. So, return policies aren’t going to help us and may make Christmas at my house a little upsetting for my kids. I wish they were past the Santa believing portion of their lives to make it easier.

Yeah, but think of the opportunity to teach your children something actually meaningful as a Christmas lesson.

“Well kids, ‘Santa’ has been overspending and over-regulating, leading to inflation and supply chain issues because of his liberal policies. Add to that his executive-overreach vaccine mandates and the unionized ‘elves’ work even less, despite their labor shortage from being paid to sit at home for the past year...

“What I’m saying is, liberals caused you to have this lousy gift card for Christmas.”

 

[Kiel]

I've been waiting on a new terrapod RTT since Feb. Good thing it was only a deposit and it locked my price in. I finally got an start assembly date of next week.

 

[Vonski]

I've been waiting on a new terrapod RTT since Feb. Good thing it was only a deposit and it locked my price in. I finally got an start assembly date of next week.

If the Dem’s are able to continue with their destructive plans, it’s good to know you’ll have a RTT to live in. 😳😂

 

[Spork]

Shipping has always been one of those mysteries to me. They can build something, ship it 7000 miles and do it cheaper than someone can do it here. I guess thanks to government you can't do some of those things here but still when discussing trade shipping isn't factored in.

 

[Herzog]

Shipping has always been one of those mysteries to me. They can build something, ship it 7000 miles and do it cheaper than someone can do it here. I guess thanks to government you can't do some of those things here but still when discussing trade shipping isn't factored in.

In some instances, they grow the thing here, ship it over seas for processing and packaging then ship it back over here to sell. (cough, Tyson foods). How in the hell does that make any sense?

 

[TRD270]

So I flew into LAX a couple times today and man there are A LOT of ships sitting out in the harbor.

 

[Hickey]

L.A. port to become 24-hour, 7-day-a-week operation to ease shipping backlog

President Joe Biden tried to reassure Americans on Wednesday that he can tame high inflation, announcing a deal to expand operations at the Port of Los Angeles as prices keep climbing and container…

ktla.com

It's OK guys, Biden to the rescue!

Yeah, we better do what we've already been doing for a year, OR ELSE!!! 😂

 

[Mouse]

It could all be fixed by a written policy...when I think about that, we are in a bad place because we are creating it

 

[Hickey]

Can you say more about this? I'd love to hear from the shipping/OTR side of things.

I'm baffled at what this influx after all the wait will actually do.

It won't be changed quickly. The upset in supply chain caused by the Covid mess will ripple within our economics for years. Shortages in labor and parts are constantly creating bottlenecks in the flow. Simple parts shortages can take out a key piece of equipment for months at a time. We have trucks that sit awaiting parts for repair for up to six months now. My truck took two months to repair after my accident. The repair shop told us they needed 3 days to repair it, once they got the part in. That shop was true to their word, and I had my truck one week after the parts arrived.

As a consumer, you will only see the shelves at stores missing their full product lines. I don't think those shortages are as bad as the great TP famine of 2020, just more pervasive across the spectrum of products.


As far as the backlog of container ships itself, it will just take time. There are only so many people to process those ships, and only so many pieces of specialized equipment like the big cranes that off load the containers from the ships. I assure you they have all been working as much as possible for a year now, despite what the media and politicians will tell you.

 

[RockChucker]

@Hickey why is there seemingly an influx of ships now? Suppliers overseas finally caught up on backlogged orders? Has there been an ebb and flow of ships arriving?