Posted on 08/31/2024 9:00:00 PM PDT by ransomnote
MarQ
If you want on or off the ping list send me a FReepMail.
I have not done a "Broken China Update" in a while. Suffice it to say that things are still bad and getting worse faster than ever. I stand by previous predictions concerning economic & demographic collapse and the end of the CCP.
This time I would like to alert you to an impending strike by against the US Maritime Alliance(USMX) by the International Longshoreman's Association(ILA) on October 1, 2024. This would definitely affect all container operations at ports along the US East and Gulf coasts. It is NOT known if petroleum, oil, & lubricants (POL) and/or passenger traffic would be affected.
The East & Gulf ports handled containers equal to ~7 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) through July of this year. That is 51% of containers entering the US and about 60% by weight.
A container equal to one TEU is 19 feet 10.5 inches (6.058 m) long and eight feet (2.44 m) wide. The height of these containers is most commonly 8 feet 6 inches (2.59 m) but ranges from 4 feet 3 inches (1.30 m) to 9 feet 6 inches (2.90 m). One Forty-foot Equivalent Unit (FEU) stacks exactly on top of two TEU containers.
Currently both sides are NOT talking. The union says it will strike without a master contract in place and its members have been preparing for a strike for over a year. The Biden Admin says it will NOT intervene to prevent a strike. The only good news is that most shippers anticipated a strike and front loaded goods for the Christmas shopping season.
Anything more than a two week strike will take MONTHS to sort out. A work stoppage stops full containers from coming in and empty containers from going out. Empty containers back up in ports and shippers can lack containers for the next set of products.
A strike at US east & gulf coast ports is bad news for Europe as well. About 20% of the traffic from east Asia to Europe is transshipped to the US east coast. Europe is already dealing with the Houthis blocking the Bab-el-Mandeb strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea. This forces ships to go around Africa adding about 3 weeks to the transit time. With a strike here, those containers would quickly begin to clog European ports such as Rotterdam, Antwerp, and Hamburg.
Only a small portion can redirect to US west coast ports without hopelessly snarling the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The west coast ports are represented by a different union.
WWG1WGA
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.