(Newswire.net — October 21, 2021) –The top leaders at some of the most reputed and busiest ports in the United States expect congestion to continue further on maritime gateways. The main reason behind these logjams is the extensive crush of goods from retailers and manufacturers that are making efforts to replenish various depleted inventories right since the previous seasonal lulls.
As the peak shipping season of the year started, the ports in the United States were swamped by an extensive number of loaded containers. Due to the stretched logjams at distribution networks and warehouses across various networks in the country, the count of vessels in need of berth space is also growing at gateways in the Southern California region.
The executive director, Mario Cordero, at Port of Long Beach, recently had a conversation with the cargo customers and shipping lines. After analyzing the factors, he stated that container volume slowdown usually coincides with the Lunar New Year that begins from the month of February. This is the time when most of the factories in China shut down, but visualizing the current logjams, even that condition may not offer desired relief.
For the past several months, covid-19 has disrupted several activities around the world. However, it couldn’t obstruct the expanding role of the United States in global supply chain management and relevant growth prospects. The Southeast Asian nations are now struggling to maintain several exports and manufacturing-related decisions due to surging cases of covid-19. This is one of the major battles on their way to lead international trade activities for potential goods, including cars, computer chips, and clothes. Business professionals need to make careful decisions for China to USA shipping.
However, even after several shutdowns and supply chain-related problems that occurred due to the covid-19 pandemic, the United States is still doing great on economic grounds. Stats reveal that this country is turning into a major global supply chain partner, especially for goods that play an important role in the life of American consumers.
Forecasts reveal that the extensive logjams on the ports will continue up to mid of 2022, and it may even grow up to the end of 2022. Major ports in the United States are expected to handle imported containers with a count of more than 2.37 million by the month of August. This figure is quite high as compared to the records from the year 2002. Moreover, the overall inbound volumes of NRF projects for 2022 are expected to cross the estimated range of 25.9 million containers. This figure will go above the record high of 22 million boxes from the year 2020.
The ports these days have emerged as a bottleneck of extensive global supply chains, and the ships are loaded with boxes carrying a variety of home furniture, electronic products, holiday decorations, and many more. In this scenario, it has become very complicated to ensure smooth shipping from China to US.
Thousands of loaded containers at the time are stuck on the container ships, and they are waiting for the berth to move to the desired inland terminals and then further to the distribution centers and warehouses.
The experts in the field of freight management reveal that the shortage of warehouse workers and truck drivers is the main cause of shipping delays. This congestion has led to the global shortage of shipping containers, and it further increased the cost of ocean freight as well. This logjam even motivated the Biden administration to elect a new ports envoy in the previous month to address various cargo movement-related complaints from US businesses that are experiencing shipping delays, inventory shortages, and rising costs.
There is no doubt to say that this congestion has become the worse condition at most of the neighboring ports, including Long Beach and Los Angeles. It is expected to account for almost a third of all seaborne imports in the US. More than 40 ships have been waiting on the coasts per day for the past several weeks. However, before the pandemic, it was unusual to see a single ship at the anchor. At that time, it was easier to lead shipping from China to USA.
Forecasts reveal that the oceanside congestion may even get worse during the peak holiday season. Moreover, this surge may be further influenced by the rising demands of consumer goods, including office equipment and home improvement accessories in the United States. In simple terms, the covid-19 led logjams may take a longer time to recover, and they are expected to affect people for the entire year ahead.