More than two dozen container ships appear to be stuck at sea miles off the south shore of Long Island, according to a maritime traffic monitoring website as more than 60 vessels wait to dock at two of the country’s largest ports on the West Coast.
The logjam at the nation’s three busiest ports comes as the economy reels from a supply chain crunch which as been exacerbated by a shortage of truck drivers. The situation has deteriorated to the point where supermarkets have been unable to stock their shelves with products while FedEx has had to reroute hundreds of thousands of packages.
MarineTraffic, the global ship tracking site, shows cargo ships and oil tankers clustered just a few miles off of the coastline that stretches from Long Beach in the west to Lido Beach and Jones Beach Island in the east.
As of 9pm local time, the ships appear to have remained in place for hours.
The Port of New York and New Jersey appears to be beset by the same congestion caused by the surge in imports that has created a massive logjam of shipping containers waiting to berth in the waters of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey seeking comment.
Some two dozen container ships appear to be stuck at sea miles off the south shore of Long Island. MarineTraffic, the global ship tracking site, shows cargo ships and oil tankers clustered just a few miles off of the coastline that stretches from Long Beach in the west to Lido Beach and Jones Beach Island in the east
The May 2021 image above shows the CMA CGM Marco Polo arriving at the Port of New York and New Jersey. The port surpassed Long Beach, California as the second busying port in the United States earlier this year
The New York area has not been immune to the supply chain crunch that is affecting the American economy.
John Catsimatidis, the owner of the Gristedes grocery chain, says that his stores have experienced shortages in Coca-Cola products.
‘We have shortages in our New York stores because Coca-Cola, they can’t get truck drivers to deliver into New York City,’ he told Fox Business.
‘And it’s a serious problem.’
Earlier this summer, New York and New Jersey surpassed Long Beach as the second biggest port in the country. Los Angeles is the largest port in the US.
In June, LA recorded 467,763 TEU of imports. TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent unit, is a unit of measurement used to determine cargo capacity for container ships and terminals.
The port of NY/NJ saw a 47.8 percent year-on-year increase in June. It recorded 390,169 TEU, according to The Load Star.
The increased activity at the ports is a result of the surge in imports driven by demand for consumer goods that Americans are eager to buy after the end of coronavirus-related lockdowns.
The enormous demand doesn’t appear to be showing any signs of slowing down in the near future, according to analysts.
Earlier on Saturday, a satellite image captured more than 60 container ships that are stuck waiting to dock outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as a massive supply chain crunch hits the United States.
The extraordinary sight of vessels unable to berth is due in part because of a massive backlog that has been caused by a sudden surge in American buying ahead of the holiday season.
The number of ships that are currently anchored outside the major ports, which moves 40 percent of containers in the United States, has tripled over the course of the past two months to 62.
The Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach currently has 62 cargo ships waiting to dock
Pandemic-driven port congestion and labor shortages have forced retail chains including Costco to spend more on transportation. Cargo ships are pictured on September 20 waiting to dock at traffic-clogged Los Angeles ports
The west coast ports serve as the entry point for a third of imports to the US, and are the main import point for goods coming from China
In an aerial view, container ships are anchored by the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles as they wait to offload on September 20
Amid a record-high demand for imported goods and a shortage of shipping containers and truckers, the twin ports are currently seeing unprecedented congestion
Lines are now at their longest since the start of the pandemic.
The backup at the country’s busiest port complex has been brought on by a pandemic-induced buying boom, coupled with a labor shortage that has overwhelmed the port workforce, according to port officials say.
The shipping traffic jams come as the US and some other economies are beginning to head towards normalcy and shows how messy the reopening of business is proving to be more than 18 months since the pandemic’s onset.
It also shows just how fragile supply chains remain.
The 62 container ships waiting to dock include 42 container ships physically at anchor and 20 in drift areas, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, which tracks ship traffic in the area.
The West Coast ports have faced traffic since August, when a then record-breaking 44 container ships were stuck off the coast due to similar disruptions.
The traffic-jam at the ports, which serves as the main entry point for goods coming from China, has even directly impacted the prices for artificial Christmas trees.
The port of Long Beach is now testing out a 24/7 pilot program that would expand the hours for cargo pickup to a time when there is less traffic in the region, allowing for speedier deliveries.
‘We are in the midst of an historic surge in cargo, and our terminal operators and other supply chain partners are giving their all to keep it all moving,’ Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero said in a statement.
‘We welcome this pilot project by TTI as a first step toward extending gates to 24/7 operations, and we encourage our cargo owners and trucking partners to give this innovative program a try.’
Container ships are seen sitting out in the Pacific Ocean as they wait to dock at the Port of Los Angeles
A record number of cargo container ships wait to unload due to the jammed ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach near Long Beach, California, pictured on Wednesday
About 40 percent of all cargo containers entering the US pass through the Port of Los Angeles
Cargo container ships anchored outside the port of Long Beach in mid August, when the number of ships anchored there was 40, the previous record
Shipping company FedEx is rerouting more than 600,000 packages a day as it scrambles to cope with the labor shortage plaguing businesses throughout the US.
Raj Subramaniam, chief operating officer at FedEx, announced this week that understaffing problems have caused ‘widespread inefficiencies’ at the shipping company.
Subramaniam said that major shipping hubs, like the one in Portland, Oregon, are running on ’65 percent of the staffing needed to handle its normal volume.’
As a result, the hubs are diverting about 25 per cent of the packages that normally come through, Fox Business News reports.
The FedEx hub in Portland, Oregon, pictured is operating at 65 per cent staff. The issues are causing about 25 percent of packages to be diverted
FedEx is diverting more than 600,000 packages a day due to labor shortages at their shipping hubs. Pictured, the FedEx Shipping Center in Los Angeles, California
FedEx Chief Operating Officer Raj Subramaniam said the inefficiencies are occurring across the US
The diverted packages must then be ‘rerouted and processed, which drives inefficiencies in our operations and in turn higher costs,’ Subramaniam said.
‘These inefficiencies included adding incremental linehaul and delivery routes, meaning more miles driven and higher use of third-party transportation to enable us to bypass Portland entirely.’
FedEx Chief Financial Officer Mike Lenz added that the problems will most likely persist for the rest of the year.
The labor shortages are not only delaying shipments, but also affecting all shopping across the nation.
Shoppers looking to buy anything from electronics to sneakers to automobiles – and even household staples like toilet paper – could be out of luck as retailers face a dire combination of supply chain problems, labor shortages and inflationary pressures with the holiday season fast approaching.
Costco on Thursday said it was reinstating limits on purchases of toilet paper, paper towels and bottled water.
Nike is struggling to find enough shipping containers to deliver its merchandise from overseas.
And General Motors said it would cut production at its plants in Indiana, Missouri and Tennessee this month because of the dearth of microchips. Ford Motor is also reducing truck production.
Prices for a cargo container have skyrocketed from $2,000 two years ago to as much as $25,000 this year
Nike has seen transit time of its merchandise being transported from its factories in Asia to the US double because of lack of containers, port congestion and labor shortages
The moves come as Americans are getting ready to loosen their purse strings and hit the stores ahead of the fall and winter holidays.
A resurgence in COVID-19 cases had led to hoarding of household essentials last year during lockdowns, forcing Costco to put limits on purchases of some household goods.
While there was a shortage of cleaning supplies even last year, transportation issues this year are causing delays in deliveries to stores despite suppliers having plenty of stock, Costco Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said in an earnings call.
‘A year ago there was a shortage of merchandise,’ Galanti said. ‘Now they’ve got plenty of merchandise but there’s two- or three-week delays on getting it delivered because there’s a limit on short-term changes to trucking and delivery needs of the suppliers, so it really is all over the…
Read More:Dozens of ships off coast of New York wait to dock in the country’s second-largest port
2021-09-26 01:34:51