By Brendan Murray (Bloomberg)
Cargo ships enduring one of the worst U.S. port bottlenecks in more than a decade faced down another obstacle as they waited to offload near Los Angeles: a lashing from Mother Nature.
Winds gusting to 55 knots (63 mph) and 17-foot (5.2-meter) waves forced 17 loaded container vessels to depart their anchorages for safety out at sea, the Marine Exchange of Southern California said in a note late Monday. Another 14 carriers remained anchored outside the adjacent ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, it said.
The storm prevented “many” scheduled port movements, and marine officials indicated that the congestion doesn’t look likely to clear soon: 28 additional container lines are scheduled to arrive in the next three days 11 more than the usual pre-Covid traffic.
By Enda Curran and Brendan Murray (Bloomberg)
Shocks to supply chains are engulfing a wider swath of the global economy as the pandemic rages on, threatening to stifle Asia’s trade-led recovery and making it harder for businesses grappling with soaring freight costs to weather another year like 2020.
Shortages of consumer goods like paper towels and work-from-home gear early in the Covid-19 crisis have given way to parts shortfalls in one of the most globally integrated of industries: auto manufacturing.
Volkswagen AG was forced cut production plans at the world’s largest car factory in Germany and warned supply constraints might spread globally, while Honda Motor Co. is reducing output at five North American factories as it struggles to procure chips used to make cars.
By Brendan Murray (Bloomberg) –
Container shipping, the backbone of the global trading system, is showing signs of fatigue as the pandemic descends into its darkest days.
Carriers reaping the biggest profits in at least a decade are struggling to operate reliably as bottlenecks worsen around ports from southern England to Shanghai, contorting supply chains for everything from car parts to cosmetics and medical equipment.
Just 50.1% of container vessels arrived on time in November, down from 80% a year earlier and the lowest level in records dating back to 2011, according to a service reliability index compiled by Copenhagen-based Sea-Intelligence. From Asia to North America, on-time arrivals dropped below 30%, less than half the long-run average globally.