Free Republic

In the most recent SpaceX Starship presentation, Elon Musk stated that the SpaceX Starship can become lower cost than airplanes for long haul cargo delivery. I have some detailed calculations. Starship will double the payload capacity. Full fueling costs are about the same for the 1200 tons of fuel for Starship versus 50,000 gallons of jet fuel for a long-range cargo plane for each flight. However, twice payload means half the cost. Non-fuel costs for the vehicles and the frequency of flights are hugely in Starship favor. Starship should have twice the payload. Starship starts off at half of the...

SAINT-MALO, France (AP) — Had he continued working aboard fuel-powered cargo ships, Yann Jourdan reckons he’d be earning perhaps four times what he now gets as captain of a sailboat that instead uses the wind’s clean energy to transport goods across the Atlantic. But the hit to Jourdan’s pay is buying him peace of mind. When his 3-year-old son, Marcel, grows up, the burly French mariner wants to be able to explain what he did to make a dent in the the shipping industry’s huge carbon footprint. The international merchant fleet of more than 100,000 ships transports more than 80%...

Sgt. Quandarius Davon Stanley, a 23-year-old U.S. soldier, has paid the ultimate price for a mission many experts warned was flawed from the start. This is the third American death that can be traced back to the Gaza Pier debacle – which cost taxpayers $320 million – but the first of a US Serviceman. Critically injured over the summer during the Biden-Harris administration’s ill-conceived Gaza pier project, Stanley battled his injuries for months before passing on October 31. His death is a painful reminder of the risks taken by young service members on operations shaped by political optics and poorly...

Layoffs continue across the freight and logistics industry, with companies in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan and Texas announcing job reductions and facility closures over the past two weeks. Universal Logistics Warren, Michigian-based Universal Logistics is permanently shuttering two of its subsidiaries and laying off a total of 677 employees, according to notices recently filed with the state. The layoffs are related to Universal-operated entities Logistics Insights Corp. and Universal Dedicated of Detroit, an auto parts warehousing and logistics facility. Both operations were in Detroit. Universal Dedicated of Detroit’s closure will affect 230 truck drivers who worked from the facility. Logistics...

A large cargo ship with a fire in its hold is being kept 2 miles (3.22 kilometers) offshore of an Alaska port as a precaution while efforts are undertaken to extinguish the flames, the U.S. Coast Guard said Saturday. There were no injuries to the 19 crew members aboard the Genius Star XI, which was carrying a load of lithium-ion batteries across the Pacific Ocean, from Vietnam to San Diego, the guard's Alaska district said in a release.

I’ve had a couple posts already in the past week about the cargo situation in the Red Sea. The latest was on Monday and included news of the US gathering in the area with allies to possibly take a shot at these Houthis.CHART OF THE DAY: Currently, 5 out of 4 largest container shipping companies are turning away their vessels from the Red Sea due to attacks from the Houthis from Yemen, accounting for >50% of the world's capacity (measured by TEU containers). https://t.co/TiwfUc4KSY pic.twitter.com/O9iaphSOm1— Javier Blas (@JavierBlas) December 18, 2023Couldn’t happen a minute too soon for the global economy....

Nearly all container terminals at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are closed after union workers failed to show up to work, officials said. The work stoppage comes in the midst of labor negotiations between one of the state’s most powerful unions, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, and their employers, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association. In LA, all seven container terminals were closed Friday, port officials said in an email to the Business Journal. In Long Beach, meanwhile, officials told the Business Journal four out of six terminals are closed, including International Transportation Service on Pier...

Are you ready to say goodbye to all the high costs of owning a car and hello to a new electric cargo bike as a cost-effective alternative? When first I saw this invention, I thought it seemed crazy. While an electric cargo bike may not be suitable for everyone, particularly those who need to transport large or heavy items, it is a viable option for many seeking a more sustainable and cost-effective mode of transportation. **SNIP** And hey, I could use the exercise and the help of a battery-powered ride when things get heavy. That's the idea behind the Mate...

Tucker Carlson released explosive video on Monday from his investigative reporting on the more than 40,000 hours of government video from January 6, 2021 at the US Capitol. Since Monday he has released NO NEW VIDEO. This comes after numerous threats from Democrats, the government and Uniparty members who wish to keep the truth of January 6 hidden from the American public. For over two years the American public has been lied to by their government, the government-media alliance, and DC politicians. Here are FIVE excruciatingly vicious videos from January 6 that the government does not want you to see....

The European Commission is considering banning ships registered in European Union countries from using crews of sailors from the Philippines. The prohibition could drastically impact global shipping: Currently, one in four crew members on merchant vessels around the world hails from the Philippines. And the European Union is second only to Panama in gross merchant tonnage. If this ban goes through, it’s poised to rock an industry that’s been struggling for years. Deutsche Welle reports the ban is being considered after an audit by the European Maritime Safety Agency. European regulators found that maritime education institutions in the Philippines didn’t...

LA lost cargo to East, Gulf Coast ports — and Long Beach next door ... The Port of Los Angeles, the highest-volume container gateway in America, is diverging from the nationwide trend. U.S. container imports remain close to record highs, yet imports to LA are falling double digits. On Thursday, the Port of Los Angeles reported total throughput of 805,672 twenty-foot equivalent units in August, down 15.5% year on year (y/y). Imports came in at 404,313 TEUs, exports at 100,484 TEUs and empties at 300,875 TEUs. Imports were down big, sinking 16.8% y/y and 16.7% compared to July. ... It...

Anchorages continue to fill with waiting container ships off East and Gulf Coast ports, where vessel queues have now far outgrown those off the West Coast. Along all three coasts combined, the number of waiting container vessels remains exceptionally high.There were 125 container ships waiting off North American ports on Friday morning, according to an analysis of ship-tracking data from MarineTraffic and queue numbers from California.Container ship pileup offshore of Savannah, Friday 8 a.m. Map: MarineTrafficThat’s down 16% from 150 waiting ships in January, when West Coast congestion peaked, but up 36% from 92 ships a month ago.The ship queue...

GIBSON ISLAND, Md. —A container ship is reported to be stranded off the coast of Gibson Island in the Chesapeake Bay. Marine Tracker lists the ship as the Ever Forward and that it is aground. It appears there are several tugboats out of Baltimore trying to assist.

he Portugese Navy has confirmed this morning that one of its patrol boats came to the aid of the Felicity Ace, a car carrier transiting the Atlantic Ocean, as reported by the Washington Post. The vessel transmitted a distress signal after fire broke out in one of the cargo decks, with the ship announced as "not under command" shortly afterwards. Thankfully, the 22 crew on board have been reported as successfully evacuated from the ship. The Felicity Ace had departed from the port in Emden, Germany on February 10, believed to be carrying vehicles from Porsche and other Volkswagen Auto...

While a growing number of Los Angeles-bound cargo ships are now biding time off the coast of Mexico, the supply chain crisis progressed this week as consumers found empty shelves in stores across the U.S. “There’s a big population [of ships off the coast of Mexico],” Kip Louttit, director of the Marine Exchange, told The Epoch Times. “If you look at the Pacific, it kind of makes sense to go down there. The weather is better the further south you go.” The number of ships waiting to deliver goods in Los Angeles has jumped about 12 percent since October, when...

Keep hearing of train burglaries in LA on the scanner so went to #LincolnHeights to see it all. And… there’s looted packages as far as the eye can see. Amazon packages, @UPS boxes, unused Covid tests, fishing lures, epi pens. Cargo containers left busted open on trains. @CBSLA

KENOSHA, WI—In what many are calling a tragic setback for social justice, local Antifa militants have been forced to postpone their planned riot in Kenosha. This comes after several supply chain disruptions, which have delayed shipments of bricks. "We'll have to reschedule our violent destruction of this city," said local Antifa captain Xindo Camdenleigh. "Our shipments of bricks, bike locks, bear spray, billy clubs, baseball bats, Goldfish crackers, and fruit snacks are still sitting on a cargo ship outside of the L.A. Long Beach port." The crowd erupted in a fit of wails, cries, and shrieks due to hearing the...

Leaders of ports along South Florida’s coast said they’re ready to step up and help other ports around the country, as those other ports continue to experience delays and backlogs due to global supply chain issues. The chairman of the board for the Florida Ports Council, Jonathan Daniels, said there is no congestion at the ports in Palm Beach County, Fort Lauderdale or Miami. However, he says supply chain issues are leading to delays north of Florida and on the West Coast. He says those ports are experiencing delays partly due to the fact that they supply goods for the...

Union Pacific railroad said there was a rash of cargo container break-ins as the containers were being hauled by train near downtown Los Angeles, as officials are trying to clear the backlog of cargo at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Thousands of boxes as far as the eye could see were strewn along the railroad tracks near Valley Boulevard and North Mission Road in Lincoln Park in footage captured by NewsChopper4 Monday. Several container doors were wide open - including a FedEx container with boxes tipping over. The section of the track is bordered by homeless encampments...

This is a follow-up to the original explanation of the epicenter of the supply chain backlog issue, ie “The Clog“. {GO DEEP} You need to review the years-long and building background issue to understand the fubar that Joe Biden has just made worse.From the White House perspective, the problem at the California ports, specifically the Port of Los Angeles (POLA) and the Port of Long Beach (POLB), was visible due to hundreds of container ships sitting in a queue off the coast of Los Angeles awaiting their opportunity to offload their cargo. The media was reporting on the backlog of...