Posted on 10/30/2021 6:21:50 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Halloween is going to be an extra scary day for the logistics world. A total of 60,000 containers have been marked as beyond the dwell time and need to be moved out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach by the carriers or the penalties will start racking up. A total of 33,000 containers need to be rolled out of the Port of Los Angeles and 27,000 loaded containers for the Port of Long Beach — a whopping $2,633,940,000 value in trade.
Carriers were put on notice this week when the ports announced that, starting next Monday, a daily surcharge of $100 per container will be levied. Did this light a fire and a surge of containers being moved? No.
The pace of trade moving out of the ports could be characterized as more of a pregnant pause than a surge. Live webcams of the Port of Los Angeles terminals show more images of empty lanes than robust activity.
Turn times at both terminals tracked by the Harbor Trucking Association and GeoStamp also paint the snail pace of trade both before and after the announcement.
“We are having an emergency harbor meeting Friday morning to vote on this,” explained Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. “I need to see progress on the movement of loaded containers. We need to show America we are doing whatever we can to get trade moving.”
Noel Hacegaba, COO of the Port of Long Beach, emphasized this container push would be significant in alleviating the congestion plaguing productivity.
“This is roughly 40% of all containers sitting on the terminals today,” he said. “Pulling all of these containers by Sunday will take an unprecedented coordinated effort but it must be done.”
Importers have told American Shipper they are afraid they will be on the hook for the fees. Some have already received letters notifying them of the additional charges.
“The carriers have always passed on fees and surcharges,” said one importer who asked for anonymity out of fear of retaliation. “Why would the Biden administration, which is behind this penalty, think the carriers would not pass it over? The Federal Maritime Commission is already looking into the excessive demurrage costs we are paying! Carriers are making record profits.”
Maersk sent a letter to customers on Wednesday detailing the penalties.
When asked if the penalties would be passed over to customers, Maersk responded it was a work in progress since it has clients that have clauses in their contracts that stipulate no new additional charges.
“This penalty was not intended to be a passed-on cost,” explained Mario Cordero, Port of Long Beach executive director, at a port update press conference. Hacegaba added, “We are using every tool at our disposal to move containers.”
The National Retail Federation and the American Apparel and Footwear Association tell American Shipper if these charges are passed on, it will only add to the mounting inflationary logistic charges importers have been paying.
Hacegaba stressed, “We need the entire supply chain to step up.”
Joe is the on the Job! 👍
Morons are running California. They don’t let people do what needs to be done and then fines them. 🙄😡👎🏻
Should let the containers pile up on principal.
I'm still trying to figure why he and queer husband both had to be at home taking care of their twins they adopted (bleak future). As if there have not been millions of women who took care of their newborns while the husband earned the keep or was on deployment in the military.
There should be a law...sorry, lost my PC mind.
Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Remember when distilleries tried to help out and make hand sanitizer and got fined ?
besides because of NAFTA there are lots of Mexican truckers who are happy to do the jobs Americans don’t want to do.
Carriers that don’t have trucks less than three years old which is all CA will allow. Yeah, that’ll work.
Let’s go Brandon!
I think a strongly worded letter is in order as well.
60,000 containers = 60,000 trucks.
1,440 minutes per day
60,000/1440= 41 day, 16 hours to clear the back log
Not including the containers that are unloaded each day.
How come there isn’t a container fee moratorium like the eviction moratorium for renters?
So stupid and unnecessary. Brinden is such a nasty man.
Make no mistake about the fact that this is intentional.
It is all part of this new warfare against America.
Biden is doing a hell of a job here.
Hey libtards, this is what you look like when you are in charge.
Take a picture.
I’m sure the fines will help.
L
When you REALLY, REALLY want to screw something up, hire or elect a Democrat!
Democrats is spelled M-O-R-O-N-S. Never saw such stupidity as this in all the years I was involved in Container Shipping. From the sixties when I was in rigging, and went into CY operations through the nineties when I retired. I never saw such stupidity.
I thought the truckers were waiting days and weeks for loads. And they were not allowed to sit in line, the police were running them off.
If that’s true, why should they be fined?
Why not offload container ships at a Mexican port and truck them from there?
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