There are less than ten days left before the "Black Friday" shopping season, but the goods that should have been put on the shelves are still squeezed in American ports. Almost half a year later, there is still no solution to the congestion of the largest port in the United States. Instead, it has become a vicious circle that is becoming increasingly severe. The detention fee is not enough. California intends to increase the truckload limit. Ports in other states are also taking the opportunity to attract business. It's just that it will take some time if you want to rely on these slow-moving tactics to pull the mountain of containers away. I don't know if Christmas can't wait.
As the two major ports on the west coast of the United States, the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, California has tried every means to clean up the containers piled up in the docks. From Wednesday local time, California will issue temporary permits to increase the load limit of trucks from 80,000 pounds to 88,000 pounds (approximately 39.9 tons) until June 30 next year. There is no doubt that California's move is to ease the current port pressure.
In fact, in order to solve the current congestion problem, California and even the White House have taken many measures. On October 13, US President Biden announced that the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to solve the problem of port cargo congestion.
However, the effect of this measure was not obvious. After that, the two major ports introduced a fine policy: Anyone who stays in the port for 9 days or more will be charged a daily detention fee, and the cost will be borne by the ocean carrier. But on the 15th, the two major ports announced that they would postpone the expropriation date at least until November 22. The port's statement is that greater progress has been made in unloading. Since the plan was announced on October 25, the number of long-detained containers has decreased by 26%.
Whether it is extending working hours, imposing fines, or the latest increase in the load limit, all of them highlight the increasing pressure facing the current US supply chain.
Under the predicament of the supply chain, price pressures have also been magnified. In October, the U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose the most year-on-year since 1990. The CPI increased by 6.2% year-on-year and 0.9% month-on-month, which was the largest in 4 months, exceeding the expectations of all economists participating in the survey.
For this reason, the U.S. government has planned to invest large sums of money to alleviate the problem of port congestion. On November 9, the White House stated that it would provide more than $4 billion for repairing outdated infrastructure and deepening the port for large cargo ships. In addition, in the infrastructure bill that Biden has just signed, $17 billion will be used for port and waterway construction.
