1103 words 4 minute read – Let’s do this!
The big topics of the past week – weather craziness and the Suez Canal/Red Sea crisis. Weather hardships are everywhere the past 2 weeks. The Southeast up the coast to NY/NJ Port areas were hit hard with high winds creating port closures early last week. Chicago experienced rain and flooding that turned into snow and arctic cold temperatures. Texas, Tennessee and Kansas have ice and high winds creating travel bans and closures and I am currently sitting here looking out my window at about 4 feet of snow with more falling, in my small town near Buffalo NY. Winter is definitely here!
The ship diversions away from the Suez Canal and through Africa’s Cape of Good Hope due to the Red Sea Militant attacks is creating extra transit of 10-15 days for vessels from Asia into the U.S. East Coast. Delays combined with the need for vessels to be sourced and repositioned to fill weekly schedules is leading to equipment shortages and a delay in the return of containers to Asia, which has contributed to an increase in ocean rates on all trade lanes from Asia. 2M Alliance partners Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Co. are adding extra vessels to services between Asia and the US East Coast as container imbalances are emerging from the rerouting of ships around southern Africa. The Maersk-operated Holsatia will be deployed in the TP12/Empire service as of March 6 with an expected departure from the Port of Baltimore to Shanghai. The MSC Letizia will be deployed in the TP16/Emerald service as of a March 11 scheduled departure from Newark for Singapore. The Maersk Cuanza will be added to the TP17/America service as of an expected January 21st sailing from Vietnam’s Vung Tau to Newark. One thing to keep an eye on: with the delays, empty container inventories are starting to build up again at U.S. ports. Although the empties are not currently affecting the ports, it could create space issues for the port terminals and depot and truckers yards. Possible future yard space rate increases?
Import TEUs are down 35.46% this week from last week – a heavy surge of imports hit right around New Years Day, took a dip at the end of last week and they are moving up again. The highest import TEU volume from Long Beach port at 18.1%, second Los Angeles 15.4% and Savannah coming in 3rd at 12.2% .
Import TEUs from China into the U.S. have risen 25.9% from last year during this week with Charleston as the top port for highest import volume change from 2023.
What’s happening at the ports and rails?:
You can find all the information on the below link where we cover port congestion, chassis issues and capacity lead times weekly at all U.S. and Canada Ports and rail heads on our website – click on the link below
Click Here For Port & Rail Updates
Halifax : The Port of Halifax shows nearly two-thirds (57 of 87 ships) due to arrive over the next 4 weeks will be running more than 2 weeks behind schedule due to rerouting away from the Suez Canal. We have the ability to expedite these containers for you as we have plenty of chassis’ and trucks on standby in Halifax, NS and Montreal, QC. Whether moving intact, transloading, Intra-Canada or cross-border to the USA, we have options for you. We can move cargo from either port and at the consignee door in the Midwest within days. If your service pattern is impacted by this recent situation and you are in need of an over-the-road diversion versus rail solution, please contact our Port X Logistics Canadian team at canada@portxlogistics.com
Container Vessels currently in Port: 1 Expected Arrivals: 46
Seattle/Tacoma: All terminals still open only 4 days per week. Husky Terminal has been very strict with appointments in the last few weeks and will be banning any offenders for 2 days if caught, this will be the driver and possibly the trucking company. WUT terminal starting to enforce appointments due to driver congestion as well. Guess what? We have a drayage operation and full service transload warehouse located in Kent WA for all your Seattle and Tacoma drayage and transload needs. We have 35 trucks, a secured yard space and specialized chassis for overweight containers – Even with the ports only open 4 days per week, our dispatch team/warehouse is very efficient and will keep your chassis charges to between 2-4 days, and we have open capacity! Our transload warehouse team is able to cross dock pallets quickly for expedited shipments and we have available storage space for short or long term storage projects. Contact our team for IMMEDIATE capacity, great rates and to experience our exceptional West Coast customer service at letsgetrolling@portxlogistics.com
Container Vessels currently in Seattle Port : 1 Expected Arrivals: 31
Container Vessels currently in Tacoma Port : 1 Expected Arrivals: 29
Chicago: The weather is seriously impacting rail transits into Chicago from the Pacific Northwest ports, with BNSF rail dwells at about between 5-10 day delays. Port X Logistics has Chicago drayage operations in 2 locations – Lyons IL and Hazel Crest IL. Combined We have 80 trucks, a secured yard space at each location and specialized chassis for overweight containers – we can obtain overweight permits for up to 52,000 lbs in local Chicago and have experience and are approved for pulling damaged containers from the railheads, and we have open capacity! Contact our team for IMMEDIATE capacity, great rates and to experience our exceptional customer service team of industry experts at letsgetrolling@portxlogistics.comDid you know? Port X Logistics will have a booth again this year at the Super Bowl of Supply Chain and Logistics: TPM24 in Long Beach March 3rd – 6th. We’ll be hosting onsite meetings, offsite meetings, offering helicopter port tours, group lunches and dinners. We look very forward to talking with everyone about what the Gold Standard means to Port X Logistics LLC and what we do daily to change the landscape of the drayage, transloading, and trucking industry. Brian Kempisty, Steve ONeil, Adam Stortenbecker, Patrick Morrison, Charlie Bodine, Tom Zeis will be in attendance this year waiting for you to stop by for a chat and some fun giveaways. If you would like to schedule a meeting, port tour or dinner please contact marketing@portxlogistics.com We hope to see you there!
SONAR Images
