For some, one-time factors such as the Manila truck restrictions and West Coast longshore negotiations can be dismissed as events that create short-term disruption, but, in fact, those two examples only served to expose the vulnerabilities of the system.
This year’s slowdowns came on top of a number of existing factors that, on their own, were creating the worst congestion Los Angeles-Long Beach has seen in years. A chassis shortage and the lack of a portwide pool led to shortages in trucking capacity. Multicarrier alliances calling at multiple terminals caused further strains on trucking needed to shuttle containers between terminals. Big ships created surges of cargo. And, volumes, fueled by the resurgent U.S. economy, grew.
Part of what is exposing the system to meltdown is the growing presence of mega-ships capable of carrying more than 10,000 20-foot-equivalent units plying major trade routes. The ships were built to drive down unit costs for carriers and have left carriers and terminals with the burden of figuring out how to handle them effectively while in port.
Experience suggests there is a lot of work to be done. The big ships create surges in containers that terminals — built for an earlier era of ship sizes — are struggling to handle. If the ships fall behind in their schedules, cost-conscious carriers are loathe to speed them up and incur the extra fuel expense. That compounds the delays, because vessels that arrive late often have no available berth.
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