From Long Beach to San Diego, there are ships waiting to unload, but there is a severe shortage of unloading workers and truck drivers; It is the main hub for U.S. imports of Asian products, with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach alone accounting for one-third of the nation's shipping throughput.
The backlog at U.S. ports is still worsening, with the number of ships arriving at ports each day waiting to be unloaded significantly higher than the number of ships completing unloading and leaving.
Shipping delays on the West Coast have reached record levels and will continue to rewrite records. From a transport perspective, this will result in higher detention fees, surcharges and intermodal delays.
Congestion continues to worsen, with the latest figures from the Port of Los Angeles' signal platform on October 8th showing that there are now 26 container ships waiting for berths at Anchorage in Los Angeles alone, 10 ships waiting outside the port, and an average of 10.7 days waiting for berthing time in the previous period soared to 11.1 days. Volume continued to grow in the 41/42 week.
At present, Wal-Mart alone, there are 1.1 million TEUs arrived in the United States but can not be unloaded. Wal-Mart's shelves are getting emptyer, and stores are running out of cash. This is by no means a single problem for Wal-Mart, and almost all retailers involved in shipping face the same scenario. This phenomenon has not been solved for a while, this Christmas holiday season, U.S. consumers may face a large number of out-of-stock shelves and unaftilated couriers.
The outbreak has brought an unprecedented tearing of the industrial chain to all countries. A production link, transport link of the break, leading to the entire industrial chain of the pause, creating a shortage of supply. The recent shortage of chips has led to a halt in production lines in the automotive industry and delays in delivery of vehicles, as ex case in point. A similar situation has been experienced at U.S. ports.
But the biggest reason for the big congestion in the U.S. and West ports this time is a shortage of labor.
The Biden administration's subsidies to workers are twice the minimum wage. Since workers can receive such good benefits at home, why should workers go out to work hard? Modern industry is a link, a job lack of a worker brought about by the efficiency of the decline of more than one person, a link of efficiency decline led to the efficiency of the whole process is more; It is estimated that the port will have to clear the backlog, at least until the middle of next year.
Both Drury and MSI now expect the supply chain crisis, which underpins high freight rates on multiple routes, to return to normal by the end of next year. "Supply chain chaos will last longer than expected," Drury said in his latest container forecast. Mr Drury said his "consensus view in dialogue with industry professionals" was that the end of 2022 was a "more likely time frame" for recovery. However, while the consultancy expects current freight prices to fall next year, it expects "contract freight rates to rise sharply, resulting in an average global price increase of about 6 per cent".
This phenomenon, of course, does not only occur in ports. Fast food restaurants can not invite people, building cleaning, grass cutting, swimming pool cleaning, canal dredging, are not invited to people. This phenomenon illustrates two problems:
U.S. economic growth in the second half of this year will be worse than expected, not only because of the Delta outbreak, but also because of a new round of supply chain traps caused by shortages, this time especially in the service sector.
2.The U.S. government conducted an economic experiment in which epidemic subsidies interfered with price signals and resource allocation, and the impact on the labor market and overall economic activity was enormous.