Excerpts from the Financial Times:
Shipping lines have formed new, bigger alliances to make the most efficient possible use of the new vessels. Lines carry other alliance members’ cargo on their own vessels.
But the change has also over the past few months often left the container stacking areas along the quays in Los Angeles and Long Beach full to overflowing. Terminals have struggled to handle the volumes of containers during the traditional August to December peak shipping season. Up to 18 vessels have sometimes been left waiting outside the twin ports, which together handled 41 per cent of US container traffic in 2013.
Neil Davidson, ports analyst at London-based Drewry Shipping Consultants, says it is unclear how far union action is to blame for the disruption. But he says: “There are certainly some deeper issues that have to be addressed even after the contract is agreed.”