The News
Tomorrow marks the first day of fall. Again, what? 4th quarter 2022? So crazy, lately life is passing in a blink of an eye. The first half of the year we were still playing catchup from the West Coast Q4 disaster of fall 2021 and summer was a nice little mix of crazy weather, east coast pile ups and threat of a rail strike rolling us into Q4. I am an over-thinker, my mind never stops. My best conversations are in my head with myself, I am a conspiracy theorist and overly curious and in love with all things unfamiliar to me. Time is the only thing that scares me. I think everyone in Logistics can agree, time is your biggest fear. Urgency, cutoffs, transit time, expirations. Deadlines. Dead. If you survive in this industry, you are a true superhero, challenging time is what we do. You’re an awesome Superhero. Now, grab your cape because I think we will need them to fight the 2022 Q4 villains.
Ending Q3 with the most recent update on the ILWU/PMA negotiations and APM Terminals Pier 400 operations, thanks to a customer advisory provided by Maersk.
“At this time, ILWU/PMA negotiations are ongoing in San Francisco and at local levels on operational items in the contract. To date, the parties have reportedly reached a tentative agreement on health benefits. On September 16th a tentative agreement was reached with ILWU Local 26 without incident. Local 26 provides warehouse security at the Los Angeles and Long Beach container terminals.”
“Recent news reports highlighted union-related activities at our APM Terminals on Pier 400 in the Port of Los Angeles. On September 18th ILWU Local 13 resumed working at Pier 400’s automated section of the facility after a 26-day hiatus. The ILWU had cited concerns with ship-to-shore crane working conditions in the automated section of the yard. During the hiatus we implemented continuity planning to ensure the continued flow of cargo without delay. All concerns have since been addressed and normal operations have been restored. Notably, the cranes have been in operation for two years at Pier 400 without incident and have a perfect safety record.”
I am seeing some rail volumes starting to arrive and also more misrouted containers this past week than I have ever seen before. After all, we can’t expect a perfect flow as an outcome of something that was potentially detrimental to the industry and America’s livelihood. We can also expect a continuation of chassis shortages and rolled bookings. Inbound TEU volumes are down this week, it’s possible the effects and slowdowns of Typhoon Muifa could have contributed to the slight import slow down this week. The total incoming TEU volume is down 14% this week from last week. Carriers are also blanking sailings from October 1st, due to the back up from back-to-back typhoons combined with China’s week-long National Holiday.
- NY/NJ to be blunt – it sucks, all of it. Drivers are waiting full days at PNCT just to retrieve 1 container, and still heavy port congestion at all the other terminals as well. Some drayage providers are still not hauling Yang Ming and Wan Hai containers due to lack of action being taken for the extreme empty return overflow. CMA and Hapag are diligently getting empties moving freeing up chassis capacity finally, but more volume is rolling in weekly. Expect a very not so merry NY/NJ holiday season ahead.
- Savannah nothing terrible as far as capacity is going but there are currently 28 container ship vessels at anchor with more volumes coming in towards end of next week, something for us to keep an eye on.
- LA/Long Beach a continuation of longer than normal rail dwell times, and 44 container ship vessels currently at anchor between both ports and more volumes coming in through late next week which marks end of the month and quarter.
What looks a positive this week?
- Houston with more import containers coming through the port, dwell times on average have doubled at Bayport and Barbours Cut Terminals – now standing at six days compared to two or three in the past. Good news is that there are still Saturday operating hours at both terminals, allowing to free up congestion during regular weekday business hours.
- Oakland incoming TEU imports into Oakland have been winding down freeing up capacity – we want your Oakland containers!
- Norfolk shortages ofchassis and empty equipment are still an issue, but we are celebrating having had much success tackling transload volumes over the past couple weeks.
Port X Logistics is heading into our 5-year anniversary and our best achievement was staying committed to providing the best customer experience. We have committed to putting together special teams and technology focused on providing our customers a “one stop shop” to making their lives easier.
We launched Carrier 911 in January 2022, a team that is committed to providing the most efficient solution for your domestic hot shot shipments, specializing in expedited airport to door/door to airport deliveries.
Last week we rolled out EV is EZ, a team committed to supplying solutions for your EV battery/component shipments.
We offer a wide range of services from drayage, transload, trucking, large cargo projects and more in the US and Canada. Our team is eager to share their knowledge and ideas to everyone within the industry and would love to hear from you any time of the day. We love to offer advice and think “outside of the box” to provide the best solutions. We want to grow even more the upcoming 5 years!
Did you know? We are going to be at the JOC Inland22 Distribution Conference in Chicago September 26-28, drop by and say hi! https://bit.ly/3dyM8N7
Reach out to the leadership team via letsgetrolling@portxlogistics.com .
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