WAN HAI 1/1/2025: FOR ALL CARGO ORIGINATING FROM USA EC AND WC $800/20  $1000/40   $1125/40HC

With the ongoing congestion and backlog of containers sitting at the ports and off shore, we may see more blank sailing at US Port in the near term. We have yet to find a workable solution to the current backlog of containers sitting off the coast in Los Angeles and other ports the only way to fix the problem in the short term will be blank sailing at US Ports, something that has been happening at foreign ports for some time. While the Port Authority and the Union continue to blame each other for congestion issues and until carriers invest more in the infrastructure and better ways to communicate and better management and a balancing of surplus and demand areas, there will be a continued problems facing shippers. We are starting to see schedule changes blank sailing and new Vessel rotations to try to aleve the backlogs. My hope that this will offer relief to the back logs in the next few month, during that time the leadership in the shipping companies ports authorities and other critical parts of our transportation industry start to come up with a clear plan for regular increased business as overall trade grows by 5 to 10 percent per year over the next 5 year there will be a continued strain on our system unless we start to take action now on ways to update and improve our transportation infrastructure. We need automated systems at the ports better communication between carriers and terminal operators shipper and truckers, Renewed negotiation with Unions that deal with the changing environment and investment in technology that reaches across the different parts of the transportation infrastructure from the Terminal Carriers and Rail systems to Shippers 3PL and Truckers.

As all of us serving the Metal Scrap Community have experienced there has been new constraints that we have experienced. This has been caused by services issues we have all experienced by Carriers and drayage companies.  Carriers don’t have equipment or space on the vessels, schedules are ever changing,  effecting drayage companies.  Planning for these kinds of disruptions is very difficult.  The only way to plan for these types disruptions is to increase planning work internally within your organization working with the sales, contract and transportation teams  and clearly communicate with your partners,   Mapping out future sales by looking at past contracts and then communicating those plans throughout your organization and with partners such as Freight Forwarder 3PLs and your other transportation partners. There is a fundamental shift between using just in time service that rely on Carriers and Drayage companies to fill orders and act as warehousing or inventory control that has been the standard practice for the last several years.  The “Just in Time”  environment we have become used to,  is no longer a practical way of managing inventory and handling contracts.  There is a fundamental shift that is taking place in this current environment and for the near future.  Planning contracts and sales and working closely with your Transportation Departments and Partners  has become an ever more important  part of  controlling inventory and sales.  Understanding  the realities of todays transportation environment is a necessary reality in controlling costs.      

South Carolina Ports turned in its best cargo-handling performance in history in March — and the volume was 34% higher year-over-year. “This significant achievement leads up to another historic milestone as we prepare to welcome the first ship to the Leatherman Terminal on Friday,” South Carolina Ports President and CEO Jim Newsome said in a statement. “Our all-time container record reinforces that we are adding more capacity to the Port of Charleston at the right time. The state-of-the-art Leatherman Terminal will add 700,000 TEUs [twenty-foot equivalent units] of throughput capacity and a 1,400-foot berth to the East Coast port market when it is most needed.” The Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal will have five ship-to-shore cranes with 169 feet of lift height above the wharf deck, 25 hybrid rubber-tired gantry cranes and an expansive container yard, the South Carolina Ports Authority has said. At full build-out, the terminal will add 2.4 million TEUs of capacity — doubling existing port capacity. In its all-time container record, the SCPA moved 248,796 TEUs across the Port of Charleston’s Wando Welch and North Charleston container terminals in March. The previous record was set in August 2019 with 233,110 TEUs. In March 2020, as the supply chain stoppage brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic was felt at U.S. ports, the SCPA handled a total of 185,631 TEUs. Loaded imports last month at the Port of Charleston were up nearly 50% year-over-year, from 76,019 TEUs in March 2020 to 113,867 TEUs this year, the SCPA said, noting the “booming Southeast population and pandemic-driven lifestyle shifts continue to drive retail imports, including home goods, furniture, electronics, exercise equipment and fresh produce and refrigerated foods.” Empty containers exported also were up significantly, from 28,911 TEUs in March 2020 to 46,872 TEUs last month. SONAR: PIMS.USCHS Charleston, South Carolina, port import market share has surged year-to-date as volumes have climbed. To see more SONAR data and to schedule a demo, please click here. Loaded exports also were up year-over-year, by 8.2%, from 73,077 to 79,077 TEUs “as advanced manufacturers and automotive companies see steady demand for their products across global markets,” the SCPA said. More than 22,000 vehicles were handled at the Port of Charleston’s Columbus Street Terminal in March, the SCPA said. The March numbers also were up from February, when port congestion around the country was blamed for lower volumes: 182,269 TEUs moved at the Port of Charleston and 17,555 vehicles were handled at the Columbus Street Terminal. Inland Port Greer continues to break records, the SCPA said. It recorded its busiest month in history in March with 16,688 rail moves, up 20.3% from the same month in 2020. So far in the fiscal year, from July 1 to March 31, Inland Port Greer has handled 119,460 rail moves, up nearly 5% from the same period last year. Just a month earlier, Inland Port Greer, located in upstate South Carolina, had turned in its best February with 14,418 moves. That followed the best January with 13,401 rail moves. According to the SCPA, Inland Port Greer extends the Port of Charleston’s reach 212 miles inland via rail, and 94 million consumers can be reached within a one-day truck trip from the terminal. Inland Port Dillon, located in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina, had “nearly 3,000” rail moves in March, the SCPA said, similar to the 2,823 reported in February. From July 1 to March 31, Inland Port Dillon recorded 27,549 rail moves, up 12.4% from the same period in 2020. South Carolina Ports finding groove with rail South Carolina Ports rides rails to robust January South Carolina Ports continues riding volume wave Click here for more American Shipper/FreightWaves stories by Senior Editor Kim Link-Wills.   Inland Port Dillon Inland Port Greer Leatherman Terminal Port of Charleston SCPA South Carolina Ports Wando Welch Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Reddit Share via Email Senior Editor Kim Link-Wills has written about everything from agriculture as a report

This was especially true for third-party logistics warehouses who were hopeful to take advantage of what was predicted to be a year of growth. Fast forward only a few months into the new year and the world changed. Many logistics and supply chain businesses experienced unprecedented challenges and were left to navigate a quickly evolving landscape due to a global pandemic. Overall, the impacts to the supply chain were varied based on the fulfillment or services offered. For businesses who were able to pivot, the latter half of 2020 offered valuable opportunities. For example, many warehouses who offered ecommerce fulfillment actually thrived in spite of an uncertain economy in the background.   The full article is here.