US west coast port congestion could last until the summer
Due to the pandemic’s increased cargo rate, industry executives see no end to the ongoing congestion until the summer.
By Michael McGrady, Maritime Direct Americas & Pacific Correspondent
Jeremy Nixon, the chief executive officer of Ocean Network Express (ONE), and Rolf Habben Jansen, the chief executive officer for Hapag-Lloyd, both warned of a period, a “difficlut” time, leading up to the start of the more traditional peak shipping season.
The comments come at JOC’s virtual TPM21 conference this past week.
Fabio Santucci, the president and chief executive of MSC US, added that he believes the supply chain’s disruptions are transpacific and could only be fixed in the long-term period.
GCaptain reported that Santucci believes that it is extremely difficult to predict the impacts of port congestion along the US west coast.
“We have been using all of the vessels in our fleet and more,” Santucci said via GCaptain and its coverage on JOC TPM21.
Nevertheless, the cargo delay in waters like San Pedro Bay and its container hubs demonstrates a broader crisis of high congestion that impacts cargo volumes and, effectually, whole supply chain mishaps.
