Container Shipping

Jonathan Daniels, CEO and Port Director for Port Everglades joins Michael Levans, Group Editorial Director of Peerless Media’s Supply Chain Group in a discussion revolving around the port’s continued expansion and sustainability efforts.

Jonathan Daniels, CEO and Port Director for Port Everglades joins Michael Levans, Group Editorial Director of Peerless Media’s Supply Chain Group in a discussion revolving around the port’s continued expansion and sustainability efforts.

Low water levels have caused a backlog of container vessels at the Panama Canal, and that could impact the ability of businesses to restock inventories in time for the holiday shopping season.

The period from mid-2020 to the fourth quarter of 2022 was a high-water mark for the container shipping industry, and with it came unprecedented turmoil, disruption, and prosperity, and that period was, above all, a period of extremes: extreme rate rises, extreme container and labor shortages, extreme delays, extreme congestion, and extreme chaos for exporters and importers alike, this time it's different.

Going back to when the fee was initially rolled out on October 25, POLA and POLB said that the ports have seen a cumulative 62% decline in the amount of aging cargo on their docks, a tally which has trended up going back to the initial announcement of this fee.

Logistics Management (LM) Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Port of Oakland Executive Director Danny Wan. Wan provided LM’s Berman with a wide overview of various efforts the Port of Oakland is focused on, including: port operations; the import and export outlook, emissions reductions efforts, and port labor, among others.

This follows a July 2021 inking of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which formalized the working relationship between the organizations and established a framework for partnership between the FMC and DOJ’s Antitrust Division that “enhances cooperation in the enforcement of antitrust and competition laws, including the Shipping Act…by facilitating information exchange between and among attorneys, economists, and technical experts,” according to DOJ and FMC.

This follows previous joint announcements by POLA and POLB, whom collectively account for roughly 40% of United States-bound import volumes, indicating that consideration of the fee would be pushed back until November 22 and subsequently November 29, December 6, and December 13.

Citing “a combined 37% decline of aging cargo on the docks,” the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and the Port of Long Beach (POLB) said this week that they are again postponing the implementation date for their ocean carrier Container Dwell Fee, which will not be considered before Friday December 13.

In some recent correspondence I had with a friend at global express delivery and logistics services provider DHL, the subject of the logistics-related issues coming out of Asia was front and center, to be sure.

The ocean shipping sector is as active as it gets these days, for a whole host of reasons, too, including ongoing COVID-19-driven demand, port congestion issues, equipment imbalances (larglely containers), and rate pressure, among others. Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Sri Laxmana, Vice President of Global Transportation at Minneapolis-based global logistics services provider and freight forwarder C.H. Robinson, about these topics and others.

Over the course of 2021, ocean carriers will continue to operate at high capacity utilization levels, and ocean rates will remain high. Moreover, along with the need for elevated container circulation, high demand will continue to favor the Pacific Coast ports for Asian imports destined for the Midwest.

Higher rates, tight capacity, and a lack of empty container availability are major factors the current state of the global ocean container market.

Rail carloads—at 220,343—were down 15.6% annually, and intermodal units—at 277,054—rose 1.9%.

May shipments—at 1,002,314—dropped 7.4% on an annual basis. And on a year-to-date basis, shipments through the first five months of 2020—at 4,840,335—were off 2.9% compared to the same period a year ago. Containerized shipments in May—at 2,043,403—were off 19.7% annually, and on a year-to-date basis, they were off 8.3% annually, to 10,762,310.