Posted on 10/21/2021 12:58:14 PM PDT by DFG
A Florida port authority is inviting steamships waiting to dock in California to divert via the Panama Canal to the sunshine state, where there are no backlogs.
The Jacksonville Port Authority said it’s the solution to an unprecedented logjam at The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where weeks-long queues are slowing commerce ahead of the year’s busiest shopping season.
It’s a sharp contrast from the scene in Jacksonville, which officials said has maintained terminal fluidity – and set a new container volume record - despite market disruptions.
Florida ports council president Michael Rubin said they can expedite cargo ship movement by rerouting container ships via the Panama Canal, a seven-day journey from Southern California to Northern Florida.
‘We have the opportunity to provide those shipping lines and beneficial cargo owners a more efficient route that can get their product not only to the third-largest domestic market in the country but also to other markets outside of Florida, within two days,’ Rubin told ABC Action News.
‘We realize how important it is to get those goods to market, to not be the grinch that stole Christmas.’
The Jacksonville port set a new container volume record in May, when it moved nearly 129,000 twenty-foot equivalent units through its terminals.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I believe steamboats are still used for crossing rivers and lakes, so it would make some sense the British think they’re still used to cross ‘the pond’.
Now we know why they lost the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.
Yup
Ain’t no port in Bonita Springs, Florida
That ignores the fact that shipping companies got greedy and built mega container sips that won’t fit through the Panama Canal.
Being almost 3x bigger, capacity wise, they not only won’t fit through the canal but take much longer to unload which is part of the problem for Kalifornia port operations.
True that. I ship from Orange County out of LA/LGB. One time I had a load going to Europe, but it was coming out of our supplier’s place in So. San Fran. I was shocked when the freight forwarder had it trucked down here, instead of going out of Oakland !
...”steamships”...
They have been sitting there a long time.
There are probably some China Clippers there too.
Thanks for introducing some reality to the conversation
Don’t you still have the problem of getting the goods to their destination in the western part of the U.S.?
One would have to crunch the numbers. Others mentioned the fees to traverse the canal. Then you have to turn around and sail back - more time and fuel. I am not really sure there is a savings on the travel/wait time (there are no fuel costs to just sit at anchor) and I suppose many of the shippers are just hoping and praying they are making the right decision. But surely the door to door cost for a container - from Asia to the warehouse that ordered it - will be higher (taking out the cost of wait times). Whether there is savings enough in not waiting to offset, it’s a lot to crunch. But getting that container from Florida to Colorado - more delay, more cost.
Like I said, Oakland is only a few 100 miles away from LA/Long Beach but they are not diverting traffic there for some reason. Hard to imagine then that Florida is more attractive than Oakland.
Don’t the chicoms run the Panama Canal?
https://www.stltoday.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-while-america-slept-china-gained-a-stranglehold-on-the-panama-canal/article_30203f97-8324-55f0-b878-351e945c2e1c.html
As a bare minimum a real president would do anything in his power to ramp up Americans chip production. Not a peep from this current Bozo circus.
The Port of Jacksonville currently has a posted channel depth of 40 feet. I’m not sure if that’s the minimum depth at low tide or the maximum depth at high tide, but it either case it’s not deep enough to handle the Post-Panamax or “New Panamax” vessels used by the major ocean carriers for their trans-Pacific service. These vessels couldn’t make port calls at Jacksonville even if the Panama Canal was 10 miles wide and the toll was $0.
The chicoms own the panama canal.
Thanks Jimmy Carter.
Another dimrat foul up that will come back to bite the US in the rear end.
Yes there is still the problem of moving the goods from the port. There is a reason the shippers choose Los Angeles. Maybe there are too many problems and they will change routes but it’s not going to be an easy snap decision. Others here mentioned, you need to have freight consolidators and import offices to handle the goods once they are offloaded. Full containers going to a single destination is easier but often these containers have multiple shipments going to multiple destinations. Those containers have to be delivered, broken down, sorted, and then scheduled for domestic delivery.
There is a problem less discussed which is that the hubs themselves are all backed up. I do shipping every day. I deal with importers too. I export finished goods. I work with people who do the same. To get a shipment two weeks ago destination 4 states away it took the major carrier 3 days to pick up. In 2019 I could sometimes get same day pick-up but almost always next day. Then it moved 4 states in 3 days which was good time. Then it sat in the local hub a mere 8 miles from the destination for 11 days.
When speaking to someone, it was always some or another excuse like “the local route truck was full so we had to push your pickup back”. On the delivery end the answer was “we don’t have enough truck drivers to empty out the hub and deliver locally”. Two sides of the same coin, or a different way to describe the same problem.
I sent a shipment to Asia, it went fast. Shippers are eager to fill up containers and send them back. They need the containers over there.
Yeah I don’t know why they don’t send those by train to an east coast port. Would seem on the surface to make more sense. I ship to Europe a few times a year, usually close to a full container. The customer chooses the freight forwarder and they always deliver it to LA/LB and sail around to deliver to Europe. There must be a reason for that, it is probably more efficient to load 10,000 containers on a ship than on the many trains.
I have a friend up in Montreal. He imports cheap finished goods from Asia and sells them to discount stores in Canada. He’s going broke with the container/shipping costs because his business is basically operating on a small margin but fairly large volume. But he’s paying more to get goods delivered than the goods inside the container cost.
Is Mr. Rubin an expert on the meaning of Christmas?
Shirley, Biden will retaliate by sending thousands more covid encrusted illegal aliens to every city in Florida
He didn’t say he was an expert.
.
Or Biden will fordd CD e them to fire all the dockworkers.
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