Why We Are in a Shipping Crisis That's Sparking Shortages (businessinsider.com) 187
An anonymous reader shares a report: By late January 2021, some 55 vessels were crowded around the LA and Long Beach ports, reportedly sitting in the ocean for up to two weeks. FreightWaves noted that it took longer for some of these ships just to get unloaded than it was for them to cross the Pacific. Why is there a delay to unload these ships? The boom in demand is, of course, one leading reason. American ports are also seeing a shortage of labor. There's an ongoing shortage of the longshoremen who who undertake the critical task of getting these containers off the ship and onto trucks or trains. Dozens were quarantined due to the coronavirus at varying points last year.
Above all, when something goes astray with ocean shipping, there's a major butterfly effect. A ship that's unloaded two weeks late in Los Angeles is also going to be two weeks late when it arrives back in, say, Chittagong, Bangladesh to load up on IKEA furniture. The ship before that may have been two weeks late, too, so the carrier might just cancel the ship IKEA was expecting space on, Sundboell said. Then IKEA will have to scramble for another way to move your nightstand -- and potentially every order they had after that, which will now be pushed down the road.
Halfway into 2021, the situation has not improved. There's another shortage giving rise to our shortages: A lack of shipping containers. Or rather, a lack of containers where they need to be.
Above all, when something goes astray with ocean shipping, there's a major butterfly effect. A ship that's unloaded two weeks late in Los Angeles is also going to be two weeks late when it arrives back in, say, Chittagong, Bangladesh to load up on IKEA furniture. The ship before that may have been two weeks late, too, so the carrier might just cancel the ship IKEA was expecting space on, Sundboell said. Then IKEA will have to scramble for another way to move your nightstand -- and potentially every order they had after that, which will now be pushed down the road.
Halfway into 2021, the situation has not improved. There's another shortage giving rise to our shortages: A lack of shipping containers. Or rather, a lack of containers where they need to be.
Buy American (Score:3, Interesting)
No - really.. more and more things are available in the good old USA.. often for prices that are competitive with China.
Don't believe me? Lately I've been buying inexpensive hifi audio gear which is manufactured in the USA.
Seriously, check this schiit out. [schiit.com]
Re:Buy American (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps your niche product was manufactured in the USA. But where did the parts come from? And where did the rare earth metals come from to make those parts? Overseas, of course! There really isn't anything truly "made" in the US any more. The supply chain invariably crosses oceans.
Re:Buy American (Score:5, Interesting)
There is truth to your comment, and that supply chains cross borders.
In fact Schiit is redesigning their products to compensate for the fact that the factory which produced their digital to analog converter burned down, is not scheduled to be rebuilt, and is the only source of that chip. So yes, supply chains are complicated.
But that chip is in products manufactured in China and in products from the US. And American products are able to compete on price and quality with their overseas competitors.
A niche example, but I also recently learned that Kayaks are no more expensive when produced in the USA either, and I've started seeing more companies building the us.
Do I see work moving the opposite direction? Sure, but to not to China so much as Central America.. which has alot of real benefits. As a supply chain, North and South America should be able to compete against China and win. Not only that, but when central Americans have real job prospects at home, they are less likely to risk their lives and their families to work menial low wage jobs in the USA.
Re:Buy American (Score:5, Insightful)
China is successful in this kind of manufacturing because their geography works ok in their favor with the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers providing two shipping corridors for moving and optimzing supply chains and logistics, and the massive number of people they have creating a high demand for jobs which keeps wages low. The US has better geography than China to be honest; the Mississippi River Basin is actually the best land in the world as the 3 rivers there interconnect so much good land for manufacturing and agriculture, but the US does not have low cost labor.
Central and South America have low cost labor, and in fact Mexico has some pretty high quality labor. But their geography is utter garbage. Brazil is pretty large, but the jungle is so horrendous to land-based infrastructure that they might as well be a bunch of islands in the middle of an ocean you can't sail; there's no opportunity for interconnectedness with any of their cities. Fully 50% of the Brazilian economy is based in Sao Paulo; the rest of the country is poor and disconnected. Argentina isn't much better. Chile basically hugs a narrow strip of coastline as it's pushed up against the Andes. The rest of the countries are a mix of mountains too high and jungles to dense. You simply can't build anything efficient without extensive infrastructure that the governments can't afford there.
China has lots of labor, more or less unified buy-in by their populace, and a centralized government allowing them the freedom to invest in canals, trains, and shipping ports all of which creates the opportunity to grow businesses. South and Central America are divided, terrible geography, conflicts internally and amongst each other, and no way to really direct resources to the right kind of investments to be competitive.
Re:Buy American (Score:4, Funny)
There really isn't anything truly "made" in the US any more.
Americans made in America.
Re:Buy American (Score:4, Informative)
What you say is also true of things made in China, too. iPhones are assembled in China made from parts that are from all around the world [lifewire.com].
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Re:Buy American (Score:5, Informative)
This is what it says for their $100 headphone amplifier - in my opinion the best at its low price point.
From Schiit's website [schiit.com]
Designed and Built in Texas
By "designed and built in Texas" this is what we mean: the vast majority of the total production cost of Magni- chassis, boards, transformers, assembly, etc - goes to US companies manufacturing in the US. In the case of the Magni family, the chassis are made in California, the PCBs are made in Nevada, and it all comes together at our Corpus Christi, TX facility.
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It's not just that, there's a huge difference between "Made in USA" and "Meets the legal requirements to be sold as something-USA".
I heard that when so many things started being made in Japan (yeah, long time ago), there is a city there named Usa that became a manufacturing giant overnight. And everything they made was labelled:
Made in USA,
.
.
.
(Japan)
Re:Buy American (Score:5, Informative)
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I'm not sure if niche audio equipment (Score:5, Insightful)
The real problem is our entire base manufacturing was sent overseas. We let it happen because, well, the only way to stop it was government and government's bad, m'kay. Also wedge issues. Lots and lots of wedge issues.
If you want to fix that you need to change how Americans vote. I don't know how to do that in a country were made to 30% openly oppose science [thehill.com] with just a little prompting and scare tactics...
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We let it happen because, well, the only way to stop it was government and government's bad, m'kay.
Oh come one Globalism is practically the advent of the people you support! Sorry rsilvergun you don't to put this on the GOP; neither major political party did anything to protect american industry for the last 50 years or so.
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is really a good example of that. What about clothing? Household goods (e.g. plates & cups, drapes, buckets), tools (Craftsman moved to China when Sears sold the brand). Also, I'm willing to bet a lot of the electronics (capaciters and chips) that make Schit's shit are from China or Taiwan.
The real problem is our entire base manufacturing was sent overseas. We let it happen because, well, the only way to stop it was government and government's bad, m'kay. Also wedge issues. Lots and lots of wedge issues.
Our little company uses electronics manufactured in Germany. Still overseas, but at least not China...
If you want to fix that you need to change how Americans vote. I don't know how to do that in a country were made to 30% openly oppose science [thehill.com] with just a little prompting and scare tactics...
What the heck do you think *causes* that? (Score:2)
> The real problem is our entire base manufacturing was sent overseas. We let it happen because, well, the only way to stop it was government
Lol what do you think CAUSES it to be so much more expensive to do business in the US than most anywhere else in the world?
Every time more government bureaucracy causes more problems, your solution is "even more government!"
We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
-- Albert Einstein
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Hmm, maybe its more expensive to do business here because wages are higher than Mexico/China/SE Asia? Nah, can't be that, its those pesky REGULATIONS!
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Employing a person in the United States costs about 1.5X - 3X times their salary due to various taxes and such.
https://web.mit.edu/e-club/had... [mit.edu]
In other words, for every $100 your employer spends on you, you get about $45-$50. The rest goes to various government agencies etc.
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Sure, there is overhead to employing workers in other countries too. But the amount of overhead is irrelevant when workers are paid much less in absolute terms. If you're able to pay workers 10-100x less in developing countries, it makes a ton of sense to move operations there as you'll save a bunch on labor, and it doesn't matter how much overhead is imposed in the US.
Re:What the heck do you think *causes* that? (Score:5, Insightful)
You are disagreeing with your own quote where they mention benefits are the cause of up to 1.4x their salary. In other words, providing healthcare insurance is what makes it so expensive here. Most of the payroll taxes I pay, the only taxes the employer pays are unemployment insurance and those are local, not federal.
You also seem to forget that industry in the U.S. absolutely used to work the way you describe and guess what? Until Ford started paying people well enough to afford his own products, a principle which says you give the money to the low totem people first, then you get to get rich because you have more people that can afford your service. The formation of the middle class is very much what made the U.S. the economic powerhouse it is today. This could not have happened without government regulations and taxes paying for an interstate highway system among several major infrastructure programs such as bringing electricity and phone lines to rural America.
The reality is that we didn't hold companies that do business in the U.S. to the same standard, universally. We should have imposed tariffs way back in the beginning, so if a company wants to use near slave labor they are able to do so, but at a cost that will make it less expensive to just stay in the U.S.
Both parties did this willingly as both are firmly in the hands of big business to this day. The problem no longer has an easy solution. This is why an infrastructure project as grandiose as the green new deal is being proposed. It would be an opportunity to right the ship by making it more expensive to buy overseas than domestically for all these renewable products. It don't know how successful it would be though as there are corporatists in both parties still that could probably water down any bills enough to enforce the status quo.
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Craftsman moved to China when Sears sold the brand
That started about a decade before they sold them actually. They moved most of their hand tools to Apex, who started making them in Taiwan and then China. They went through a few other suppliers as they had trouble paying their bills. Right now Sears Craftsman tools (yea, they still "make" their own Craftsman line separate from SBD Craftsman you see in Lowes) are made by Hangzhou Great Star.
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Electronic component manufacturing has largely moved overseas due to government policy and the lack thereof. Pure capitalism doesn't care about the health of a society.
I'm willing to bet that the US made audio equipm
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Taxes, laws and regulations and money printing of course is what makes people too expensive compared to less taxed, less regulated markets.
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Are there any online stores that will show from USA like computers and other tech stuff? Do 100% pure American electronics even exist?
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Do 100% pure American electronics even exist?
Apple is trying with the Mac Pro
https://www.apple.com/newsroom... [apple.com]
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Even its chips and all the other parts? :P
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CC from article
“We believe deeply in the power of American innovation. That’s why every Apple product is designed and engineered in the US, and made up of parts from 36 states, supporting 450,000 jobs with US suppliers, and we’re going to continue growing here.” Apple is on track to fulfill its commitment to invest $350 billion in the U
Re: Buy American (Score:2)
Apple has the highest margins and the most money, they can bid more and they can make more profit by bidding more ... I suspect everything else is fucking around in the margins.
What about inside like chips? (Score:2)
Are they American made? :P
Ever heard of Intel or Texas Instruments? (Score:5, Insightful)
Intel makes a ton of chips in Arizona, so there is a good chance you typed your comment on a device with at least some American made chips. Your phone has American made chips from Texas Instruments, as does some dacs from Schiit.
Fun fact - China's chip manufacturing capabilities are less advanced than Taiwan or the USA.
Also, China can't build jet engines properly, but the USA, the UK, and others do it every and export these high end products around the world.
As far as more niche chips, Texas Instruments powers many TVs, cars, and and other consumer electronics in your homes.
I'm not sure what the point is of this fatalism.
There is a chip manufacturing plant near my house, built over a decade ago which is now doubling in size.
We have our problems as a country but we should really be looking at these supply chain issues as an opportunity to expand US based manufacturing.
Re: Ever heard of Intel or Texas Instruments? (Score:2)
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The pandemic pretty much belies this argument though. Sure there are high end manufacturing activities where we lead the world. Nobody is saying their isnt.
However how critical are jet engine to the function of the economy compared to rolled steel generally? How useful is your fancy DSP silicon if you can't get the basic support components to build a product?
Look how long it took to ramp up domestic production of really pretty low tech stuff like basic PPE. You can't simply hand-waive oh those other things
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We have our problems as a country but we should really be looking at these supply chain issues as an opportunity to expand US based manufacturing.
Agreed. If only some prominent politician or political movement had ever focused on that ...
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But it was easy to pull all the tubes, walk down to the drug store, test them and buy a replacement. Now you replace the whole TV.
Re: Buy American (Score:2)
Sure where can I buy American made clothing?
How about cloth? How about rubber that can be blended into cloth to make yoga pants and sports bras for hot women?
None of those things are American made.
My personal favorite is every person who screams buy American drinks coffee. Zero coffee is grown in the USA. If you want to buy American stop drinking coffee
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My personal favorite is every person who screams buy American drinks coffee. Zero coffee is grown in the USA. If you want to buy American stop drinking coffee
Not zero...
Coffee production in the US. [worldatlas.com]
Re: Buy American (Score:2)
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Sure where can I buy American made clothing? How about cloth? How about rubber that can be blended into cloth to make yoga pants and sports bras for hot women?
None of those things are American made.
Those things used to be made in America. Then, it was off-shored, in many cases to lower costs for big box stores like Walmart, and to lower costs to increase executive compensation.
My personal favorite is every person who screams buy American drinks coffee. Zero coffee is grown in the USA. If you want to buy American stop drinking coffee
So, because we literally can't grow one product we shouldn't make any other products in the USA and then buy those products here? Are you really that stupid?
Re: Buy American (Score:4, Informative)
https://slashdot.org/~peragrin blathered:
My personal favorite is every person who screams buy American drinks coffee. Zero coffee is grown in the USA. If you want to buy American stop drinking coffee
Wrong.
100% of Kona coffee is grown in the Kona district of Hawaii, located on the island of Hawaii, which is part of the state of Hawaii, which, in turn, has been the 50th of the United States of America since mid-August of 1959 [wikipedia.org].
I've toured a Kona coffee farm, visited the Kona Coffee Growers Association's Roastery, Museum, and Gift Shoppe, and spent an enjoyable and informative hour there, interviewing its Roastmaster about all things coffee-related.
Admittedly, most Americans drink one or another cultivar of coffee robustica, because it's inexpensive enough to substantially increase Starbucks' margins over smoother-tasting, less-bitter varieties (Kona coffee - which is very expensive, as coffees go - is kona typic, an arabica varietal, btw). And, hey, if you drink French-roast coffee, you don't care about taste, anyway, so you may as well drink swill, since you probably also add enough milk and sugar to it to make it, effectively, a fountain drink.
In summary: you are an ignoramus - and, if you want to "buy American" for your morning cup of joe, pay the $45/pound or more, and drink Kona coffee, you cheapskate.
And, for pity's sake, choose a medium-dark roast (which has the best trade-off between flavor and caffeine content), and skip the carboy of steamed milk and 47 pounds of freakin' sugar per cup, while you're at it ...
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I have been buying Schiit's gear for years. Point of manufacture aside, the no-nonsense quality, lack of feature creep, and sane price points are refreshing.
Great company to do business with.
Best,
Could have also been called... (Score:5, Insightful)
"How Just In Time Shipping and Fulfillment is a House of Cards (i.e., Western-Style Management is Crap)".'
(I say this as a 'merkin)
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So yes, just in time is terrible, but management have a backup plan.
Re:Could have also been called... (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, the backup plan seems to be "have no competition". Again, not much of a plan. Ibid.
Re:Could have also been called... (Score:5, Interesting)
JiT is a byproduct of the IRS treating inventory as an asset and not a liability.
Re:Could have also been called... (Score:5, Informative)
JiT is a byproduct of the IRS treating inventory as an asset and not a liability.
Nope. JiT is a result of companies recognising that parts inventory is significant cost. It affects both operating costs and more significantly working capital.
Working capital has to be funded either from retained profits or loans, and the recurrent cost of storing parts inventory has to be paid. So if you can make JiT work it can significantly reduce manufacturing costs. However, if you have no inventory on the shelf you can have production lines standing idle whenever JiT fails to deliver. If a key supplier goes bankrupt it doesn't matter how watertight your contract with them was. So managing supply chains, monitoring your suppliers and tracking alternate supply options are key parts to making JiT work. Sadly they are frequently overlooked.
Re: Could have also been called... (Score:4, Insightful)
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It's also a byproduct of not wanting to have stale inventory laying around when you introduce a new product and suddenly nobody wants the old one any more forcing a write-down.
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JiT is a byproduct of the IRS treating inventory as an asset and not a liability.
But ... but ... tax wealth? All the cool kids say we should??
Re:Could have also been called... (Score:5, Insightful)
As a reliability consultant I always get a chuckle out of companies who call apart when their Lean Just in time process has a hic-up.. At its core Lean assumes reliability - but doesn't dictate it, so many organizations put the methodology in on a rickety foundation and that is what turns it into a house of cards.. ensuring supplier diversity and balanced ordering to ensure an N+1 redundancy in availability is core to the reliability of a supply chain, that reliability that Lean depends on being there.. But then if there isn't and advocate for the reliability eventually a Lean process will see the +1 as waste to be cut out, kind of like a logger cutting the branch off a tree he is standing on..
Re: Could have also been called... (Score:2)
Diverse suppliers wouldn't help you worth shit right about now, only having the highest priority delivery contract works. Either because they have to pay the most penalties for an existing contract and have the least wiggle room to claim force majeure, or simply because you will pay the most for a new delivery contract.
Re: Could have also been called... (Score:5, Informative)
Toyota, who invented just-in-time, somehow have no problem with their production.
Contrary to popular belief, just-in-time does not mean "shipped in early this morning", but " in time necessary for production". The chip market has always been a highly volatile one, this is nothing new. So Toyota realized that if you want to always have them "in time", you keep enough on stock for at least 6 months' worth of production.
Voila! Just-in-time working as intended.
Re: Could have also been called... (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, Toyota learned this just over a decade ago. Remember the big tsunami that hit Japan in the late noughties? Toyota was hit with part shortages then as factories shut down from power outages and other issues
They realized that what they shouldn't be doing is "get rid of inventory", but "get rid of excess inventory" - in other words, have on hand what you need based on lead times. If a part you order will take 2 weeks to come, you better order two week's worth of that part so it arrives just as you're finishing off the old stock, and you'd better place a new order so the order arrives just as you finish off the old one.
Everyone else just heard the first part and since it looks good on the balance sheet, stock price rises.
The truth is, no one other than Toyota actually implements the full Toyota method - they always ignore the little details even though those details are key to the method and documented.
Re: Could have also been called... (Score:4, Insightful)
The truth is, no one other than Toyota actually implements the full Toyota method - they always ignore the little details even though those details are key to the method and documented.
It's not the little details that people ignore about the full Toyota Way - there's just too many little details. The main thrust of the Toyota Way is a complete mindset of understanding your whole picture, and making necessary adjustments along the way to better suit where you are and where you want to go as a business. Too many Toyota wannabes just think they need to cargo cult their way into success.
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The truth is, no one other than Toyota actually implements the full Toyota method - they always ignore the little details even though those details are key to the method and documented.
It's not the little details that people ignore about the full Toyota Way - there's just too many little details. The main thrust of the Toyota Way is a complete mindset of understanding your whole picture, and making necessary adjustments along the way to better suit where you are and where you want to go as a business. Too many Toyota wannabes just think they need to cargo cult their way into success.
One of the main reasons the Toyota Way doesn't work in the U.S. is cultural. The U.S. is full of slackers and defectors, in the game theory sense of the word. Why should a worker make himself work harder by improving his productivity by improving his workflow when the primary beneficiary will be managers and executives?
Re: Could have also been called... (Score:4, Informative)
But the folks who have to make this work for the smart folks understand that Toyota has huge leverage over its suppliers. If a customer is 80% of your business and they ring you to say, "you're diverting 100% of your widgets to Toyota" due to this major supply issue (tsunami, etc), you're going to do it. If a customer is 5% of your business, they don't have the same leverage. They can't demand contracts with stiff penalties like Toyota can.
That isn't to say TPS is worthless. Just that folks need to understand a management system before implementing it. If you say "Americans or Brazilians or Mexicans are too lazy to do things the way of Glorious Toyota", you don't understand the management system. Especially as Toyota operates plants in the US, Brazil and Mexico. And do just fine.
Re: Could have also been called... (Score:5, Interesting)
Ummm, you might have to cite your sources on this one. I've worked a few places in the US and while I have run into slackers, not sure what a defector is used in this context, I find that most people take pride in their jobs and work. Generally, I've found that most put in the time and effort they are paid for, so when they make a decent living and don't have to work multiple jobs to support themselves and their families they perform rather nicely.
But of course, that's just my opinion and I don't have a researched position to provide proof of that, I do know that the US has some of the best productivity per capita of the world, so I'd like some sources for your opinion so that I can research and provide counter examples or decide to agree with you.
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Toyota, who invented just-in-time, somehow have no problem with their production.
Contrary to popular belief, just-in-time does not mean "shipped in early this morning", but " in time necessary for production". The chip market has always been a highly volatile one, this is nothing new. So Toyota realized that if you want to always have them "in time", you keep enough on stock for at least 6 months' worth of production.
Voila! Just-in-time working as intended.
Basically, everyone else looked at what Toyota was doing and equated "just-in-time" with "absolutely zero inventory," which is NOT what Toyota actually does. Toyota actually evaluates how easily sourced a part is, and stocks inventory for critical things that could be easily disrupted or have long lead times.
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So, it's considered a major accomplishment that the Chinese economy has finally matched the US. Yes, at a glance, that's amazing. I mean, my god, the Chinese have actually MATCHED the superpower economically. Wow. It's over for the US, right?
Wrong. Remember that the US has about 150 million workers, while China has about 750 million workers. So, that means tha
Ever Given (Score:5, Interesting)
Halfway into 2021, the situation has not improved. There's another shortage giving rise to our shortages: A lack of shipping containers. Or rather, a lack of containers where they need to be.
It's more than just a shortage of shipping containers.
We're still trying to play catch-up after the Ever Given container ship [slashdot.org] caused a huge backlog when it got stuck and blocked the Suez Canal.
Now, we're seeing increasing Covid infections in shipping port cities in China.
Congestion at South China ports worsens on anti-COVID-19 measures [reuters.com]
Fresh Covid-19 Outbreaks in Asia Disrupt Global Shipping, Chip Supply Chain [wsj.com]
Re: Ever Given (Score:2)
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We're still trying to play catch-up after the Ever Given container ship [slashdot.org] caused a huge backlog when it got stuck and blocked the Suez Canal.
Apart from that, the Ever Given and the 20,000 containers on it are still in Egypt, only to be released when the damages are settled. Must really suck if your small company has a one of a kind shipment of some custom made product sitting on that ship.
It's almost as if building no new infrastructure (Score:3, Insightful)
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Yea, but not for most of the people who didn't give a fuck a the time - just their kids. You don't have to look hard to see this as a recurring issue.
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eh, the cargo ships and their routes are infrastructure. the air shipping and delivery logistics that gets stuff to my doorstep near Chicago that was in Tokyo less than 40 hours before is infrastructure. Computers and barcodes teamed with transport for the win.
Re:It's almost as if building no new infrastructur (Score:5, Insightful)
In this case the computers made it possible to radically increase throughput so that we could massively increase the amount of shipping without having to spend money building out our ports. That was all well and good until covid hit and interrupted the flow of goods. Basically there's almost no slack in our system and it's ready to come crashing down at the slightest provocation. It's a major national security issue.
Not even mentioned - latest giant shipping snag (Score:5, Informative)
All of what the summary mentioned are indeed issues, but I saw no mention of the latest giant problem - a whole port in China (Guangdong) almost shut down because of the Delta Covid variant running wild there. [theguardian.com]
This is going to cause even more massive ripples in shipping, prepare for things that come from overseas to get real scarce, really fast.
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if those 150 cases are all Stevedores, then it matters a great deal. That's basically an entire port taken off the board.
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It's clear that all the Guangdong region needs to do to fix this problem is elect a GOP governor.
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If you posted without checking the AC button, that would have undone the moderation!
Along with any other moderation in this article...
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If you posted without checking the AC button, that would have undone the moderation!
Along with any other moderation in this article...
I've done the same thing and apply Blackstone's Ratio: It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer. [wikipedia.org]
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You could have just posted that as not anonymous and that would have undone it...
Latency is not a problem (Score:2)
Plan ahead, order two week earlier.
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That's a good plan, if you know two weeks in advance that equipment is going to die. Otherwise, you might have a little temporal problem with this idea.
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In most industries, you have replacement and maintenance schedules and sensor packages which tell you months to years in advance when your more costly and complex equipment is going to die. It's the consumer side where this is largely absent.
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One spare may not be enough, and there's a limit to what can be kept on hand. If something has been great for the last decade, you don't expect it to let the smoke out today. But it still might. So just like a cache miss, sometimes what you need isn't what you stored.
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Plan ahead, order two week earlier.
Throughput is the problem here though
Ports are running at reduced capacity. [reuters.com]
And it's Only expected to get worse. [wsj.com]
Yantian handled nearly 50% more freight last year than the Port of Los Angeles—the busiest American container port—and in the first quarter of this year it saw container volume surge by 45% from a year earlier. Activity at the port, which handles more than 13 million containers a year, is now at 30% of normal levels and the delays could persist for several weeks, says Hua Joo Tan, a Singapore-based analyst at Liner Research Services.
“It’s a huge and very active port and when you get delayed there, it has ripple effects on supply chains across the world,” said Mr. Jensen, whose firm is diverting 40 container ships from Yantian to other ports, including Hong Kong. The blockage of the Suez Canal lasted a week and it took 10 days to clear the backlog, he said.
“Here there is no end in sight. The Chinese will keep everything closed until they are certain Covid won’t spread,” he said.
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Unless latency abruptly increases, which is exactly what happened. Let me guess, just go back in time and order earlier?
Could be good for hunting US-located shop box (Score:2)
They make great workshops (I've two 40' High Cubes as a shop and one "one trip" (the best grade other than factory new, you want those and not "Wind and Water Tight" junk removed from service for damage including vital door gaskets) with doors on both ends as a ride-through motorcycle garage/shop.
I'll be adding another this year so 'tis time to compare prices. (Most sellers buy from the same seaport suppliers and make their markup and sometimes do their own delivery.)
While most container structure posts are
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I can replace a door gasket with something, say RV D-bulb and if necessary swipe seals. What's annoying is having to replace the floor because the containers are gassed as they move through certain ports. And if you don't know where it's been you have to assume it's toxic.
Solution (Score:2)
Dont offload anything productionwise to china...
The alternative model would be that every land region has enough production to fullfill 70% of the goods it consumes itself in production!
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Dont offload anything productionwise to china...
The horse is already out of the barn on that one.
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Well there's your problem: we should have more than a single horse!
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Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
The Fragility of Greed (Score:2)
But that's analogous to buying a car and removing the brakes to save weigh
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I have been saying this for decades and now fear it might be to late. The time for major political intervention - tariffs and import controls was the early 2000s the problem and risk was plenty apparent by then! Even internet memers were talking about it - remember that "big box mart" flash thingy? Still at that point in time China did not have the domestic wealth to support consumption of their own production.
While it would have been painful for us simply denying China access to our market would have undon
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The United States and her allies took that to heart and built a post-WWII hegemony with control of global currency as the backbone, as a projection of the soft power that the mighty US Dollar represented.
China sniffed. China ignored the dollar and went directly to disaffected nations in Africa and Latin America, nations that have been repeatedly stiffed or
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allowing our manufacturing capacity to leave was a bad idea even when it was heading places other than China, its much worse idea when its heading directly to the worlds second major power, who shares nothing of our values.
However you can't blame the individual here (not entirely what they did at the ballot box over and over again might be their fault) individuals make micro-economic choices, this is macro problem. Put it another way no parent was ever going to let their kid be the only one in school in wit
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> The time for major political intervention - tariffs and import controls
Or maybe let the free market work. As companies fail from bad choices - LET THEM FAIL.
Government bailouts reward reckless and irresponsible behavior.
The concept of "too big to fail" and the government picking favorites to prop up hurts the overall economy. Were that parachute not there, businesses would take better precautions for downturns and disasters. Those that don't die off, those that do prosper. Think of it as economic D
Shipping friction is good. (Score:3, Insightful)
Why major shortages? (Score:2)
Pay more (Score:2)
Additive Manufacturing (Score:2)
Manufacture (print) the parts locally and assemble locally. The IP (such as print instructions) could be transmitted via internet. Only raw materials would need to be shipped globally. This would drastically shorten supply chains.
Related video that explains this all (Score:2)
Very similar to this article is this video on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
It overlaps a lot of topics with this article, but also goes onto discussion stuff like the semiconductor shortage affecting automakers.
Fun historical context (Score:3)
...FreightWaves noted that it took longer for some of these ships just to get unloaded than it was for them to cross the Pacific.
Just for context, this is one of the reasons shipping containers are so revolutionary. Prior to containers, that was the case for all ships. It took longer to load and unload them than steam anywhere. Well, maybe crossing the Pacific took longer. But the point is, loading and unloading used to be an incredibly laborious and time consuming part of shipping, with armies of longshoremen lugging crates by hand on and off ships.
Shipping containers. The unsung heroes of the modern economy.