Posted on 10/04/2021 3:52:37 AM PDT by Chickensoup
Please Explain. Exactly Why Do We Have a Shipping Crisis?
Figures. The explanation I found was #2 was more efficient but the numbers in the article was not enough to counter the cost. It also made it sound like #2 diesel was dirtier.
It boils down to the problem with JIT (Just in Time) and the end of warehousing. Back when everybody had warehouses filled with stock there was elasticity in the supply chain. A little bit of minor chaos here or there would chew up stock and probably not even be noticed in the end market. But that got replaced by JIT, which is much cheaper, and wonderful as long as nothing weird happens in the supply line. But there’s no elasticity. So basically when there was the panic run on toilet paper that just set us up for problems. Cause then shipping started focusing on toilet paper, but that meant other stuff wasn’t being shipped, so it ran out, then they focused there, which shorted something else. Lather rinse repeat. It’s like how one guy slamming on his brakes can cause a traffic jam that’s backed up for hours. It’ll take years to stop chasing our supply tail.
You answered your own question when you mentioned the UK.
China is hoarding containers under the pretense of “the necessary quarantining of containers due to covid”.
Astute observation.
Good choice, try Tito's {made in Texas, and almost as smooth as Grey Goose}.
Thanks. Sobering piece.
Macquarie consortium buying Long Beach terminal
Do you know who made up the consortium? Just curious. Meanwhile...
Australia appoints former Macquarie boss to supervise financial regulators
A lot of it depends on what you’re looking for. There’s basically revolving shortages. Aluminum has been one of the big ones lately. So soda in cans tend to be in short supply. but if you get your soda in plastic bottles you won’t notice. And there’s the buying power of where you shop too. If there’s only enough soda in cans to feed half the supply chain guess who gets their sodas, the company that buys the most. Walmart, being a massive power buyer with some vicious contracts is going to be one of the last to run into issues.
I would be surprised if contracts did not give manufacturers the right to get their merchandise back on many conditions, like that they are not getting paid, for instance.
The company I used to work for had dealings with Chinese companies who took great advantage of abusing such contract provisions. No Chinese “company” does anything the government of China does not want.
And food. We do food pretty well.
These days there are a ridiculous number of federal, state and local regulations that make the entire economic system very brittle.
Regulation destroys resiliency.
Thanks for posting the link. I’m not normally a big fan of “hair on fire” Tyler Durden, but that piece was great. A comment posted at the article...and I agree with the poster:
brooklyn62
19 hours ago
Perhaps one of the best articles I have ever read on ZH. Written in an informative, instructive way for all to understand.
No love for Newsom here, but the Chicoms will refuse to unload if one crew member tests positive at their ports.
:...they just follow right along.”
The longshoremen make pretty good money, and they are part of the union groups that push DNC people. But many of the other groups at the ports are like my son in Tacoma who are paid based upon how much product, they are called cans, that he’s actually moving. If his service needs are sitting off the coast of the California distributing groups to come up here, he’s losing money.
And until the sheeple as you call them wake up to the fact that their pork chops are sitting out in the bay because Newsome is creating a bind in their movement and they get hungry, things will go along as usual. But when the wages can’t cover the price increases and their favorite market, drug store, and restaurant closes down, then they might put pressure on Gavin to back off.
They tried to recall him once. But I can promise you the recall vote was rigged. Shortly before the vote, they found some guy in Compton that had 300 recall ballots in his car. One guy! Wonder how many more one guys were out there?
wy69
I’ve been reading some of your links. Holy crap...the Chinese have us surrounded.
An apt analogy would be a doctor performing open heart surgery. The doc has the patient’s heart in his hand. The doc can either massage the heart to restart it...or crush the heart like an egg.
We are so screwed.
“Wow - a reasonable answer on FR..”
Funny part is this info is right out in the open if you are looking for it and know a little about how the system works. The libs don’t care. They lie right out in the open now with not even a smile.
wy69
I look at this as a huge wake up call and opportunity to rebuild American industry. We need tariffs. Lots of tariffs.
Thanks for the great explanation. That all makes sense.
I remember reading in summer 2020 truckers couldn’t get food on the Interstates and that had become a serious problem.
Your remark “In the early 2000’s the bucks to BS ratio went negative on truck driving jobs.” caught my eye. My sister has taught math to middle schoolers and high school students since 1975. The Bucks/BS ratio got really bad in the 1990s and has accelerated since then. The fed gov requires districts to hire paper pushers and admin weenies who make a huge non-productive workload on teachers. Teachers are micromanaged so there is little freedom to teach the way you want. Many new teachers don’t make it through their first year. SURPRISE!! There is a huge teacher shortage.
The only group of workers that actually needed a union are IT/STEM workers and we never got one.
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