Posted on 07/16/2021 12:18:44 PM PDT by dynachrome
Union Pacific is temporarily suspending eastbound service from West Coast port terminals to its Global IV intermodal facility in Chicago to help ease “significant congestion” at inland terminals, especially Chicago, and at the ports. The suspension is aimed at helping ocean carriers reduce backlogs.
UP (NYSE: UNP) hopes this suspension, which will start on Sunday and last for about seven days, will not only help relieve port backlogs for Chicago-bound container traffic but also ultimately help address backlogs for containers destined to other markets.
The suspension applies to UP-served terminals at the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland, California, and Tacoma, Washington.
FreightWaves has been told that the suspension reportedly entails customers shipping IPI 20-foot or 40-foot equipment, not customers using domestic 53-foot equipment.
(Excerpt) Read more at freightwaves.com ...
A lot of our food in stores is from overseas.
You think prices are high now. Just wait until the effects of this are felt in stores
The global economy was a complicated beast but one that mostly worked most of the time. Now for reasons that may be known to some but certainly not to all the wheels are coming off and supply is not keeping up with demand. The results so far have not been good (chip shortage, car shortage, food price inflation, etc.). Articles like this make me think that we ain’t seen nothing yet.
Makes perfect sense to me. It’s like passengers on a bus. You have to let the ones on the bus off before the new ones get on. They have to get the current rail cars out of the Chicago yards before they can send more in.
Another shortage that I feel is building up in the economy is that of labor. I see signs all around that people don’t want to work. Maybe they’re afraid of the covid. Maybe they can earn just as much sitting on their couch sucking off the govt teat. Not really sure. I could easily imagine that the RR is finding that they have no one to offload their trains and so they are forced into this action. Or.. maybe there is no one to drive the trucks that would take the containers to their next destination. Either way, I’m sure the RR would rather be moving trains and collecting revenue then sitting idle. The fact that they’ve chosen the latter must mean that something is blocking them. I think it could well be reflective of a labor shortage in the economy.
Less China would seem to be the answer.
“The global economy was a complicated beast but one that mostly worked most of the time. Now for reasons that may be known to some but certainly not to all the wheels are coming off and supply is not keeping up with demand. The results so far have not been good (chip shortage, car shortage, food price inflation, etc.). Articles like this make me think that we ain’t seen nothing yet.”
A nation of retired people, office workers, and kids sitting in class rooms are producers.(sarcasm)
Don’t worry I’m sure robots will fix it?(sarcasm)
Think Great Lakes.....Kind of an ocean...
“Less China would seem to be the answer. “
Trump was RIGHT [again...].
I work in supply chain. The intermodal terminal in Chicago is a chronic fustercluck from time to time. I avoid this by paying for slightly more expensive ocean lines who use the Panama Canal and unload on the EAST coast.Love that description: logistics is all about opportunity. As a consumer products shipper (past life) I often made more money on transit than in price of goods.
It sounds like all of this will will end with shortages and higher prices.
Comparing share prices, without allowing for stock splits, is misleading. For instance, there have been 5 Union Pacific stock splits since 1980, resulting in about a 24 fold increase in value on a per share basis (and that's without taking into account the added value of shareholder dividends).
Yes, this article isn’t very clear. What seems to be the issue is that Chicago is backlogged and trains are waiting days to get unloaded. That means they are sitting in Illinois rather than heading west to help the ports.
By stopping to flow into Chicago these trains will be able to load any containers from the Pacific coast that can go elsewhere than Chicago. That will help shift more containers per day than what they are doing now.
“Can’t “they” put some rechargeable batteries in them [maybe add some vestigial legs] to make them sustainable, green and self mobile?”
The easiest, fastest possible way to eliminate the container problem, probably in mere weeks, is to start the rumor in China, that ground-up. empty shipping containers is an aphrodisiac.
Oops.
I forgot UP had a couple of stock splits over their long prosperous history.
They’ve always been good for dividends.
Mr Lucky,
Thank You for the correction.
Your are seeing more pilferage from container trains than ever....the trains have to stop sometimes...mostly professionals with inside knowledge.
“You would think that an alternative intermodal terminal would be built in, say, Memphis, Kansas City or St. Louis to compete with Chicago.”
Seems like pretty damned low-hanging fruit just begging BNSF to reach out and grab it.
“...empty shipping containers is an aphrodisiac.”
LOL
That’d save a lotta Unicorn horns....
No room at the ports to tie up the container ships to offload (or onload) the containers going either way!
Thanks. That makes sense
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