Losses and profits. The satellite images are striking. Normally, when the hive is functioning well, freighters crowd in tight rows towards the entrance to the adjoining ports of Los Angeles (LA) and Long Beach, unloading their goods and leaving just as quickly. But, this time, nearly a hundred of them are anchored in the bay of San Pedro. “In the port of LA, there are sailors who are patient and still patient,” Brel would have sung. Sometimes weeks. It is the biggest traffic jam on the planet, with considerable macroeconomic consequences. These two ports alone represent 40% of total US imports.
In metal boxes hanging out in the sun, sofas, bicycles, toys, sneakers, televisions… All this daily produced in China, Vietnam, South Korea or Taiwan, for American consumers. The result is pressure on prices, which further accelerates the surge in inflation in the United States.
On Wednesday, October 13, US President Joe Biden sounded the alarm. He announced the commitment of major distributors and carriers across the country to work around the clock, seven days a week, to try to absorb the clot that is congesting the American economy. But it won’t be easy, experts warn. Because the whole chain is seized up.
First link, the ports, those of dispatch, in Asia, have been working for a long time without interruption, whereas, until now, this was not the case with the ports of arrival. As a result, US infrastructure is much less efficient than its counterparts in Singapore, Shanghai or Busan. Fatally, this creates blockages.
Relocation movement
Second link, warehouses. They are packed and even with more containers unloaded, you would not know where to put them. Why ? Because the third link, that of transport, does not work well. America lacks heavy truck drivers. This is the crux of the matter, the same one that is blocking the whole of the UK. We suddenly realize that it is not easy to find people to work away from home with extended hours for a modest salary.
Finally, the last link, consumption has picked up so strongly that it has inflated orders, and therefore the demand for trains and trucks to deliver it all. The current mobilization will not solve the problem before the end of the year holidays, which begin at the end of November in the United States, with Thanksgiving.
You have 12.08% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.