The Biden administration on Friday again urged global ocean carriers to accept more export freight and restore service at underutilized West Coast ports to ease supply chain constraints and give U.S. agriculture companies a fair chance to sell their goods in overseas markets, reports Freight Waves.
The request signals that the White House will remain focused on trying to tighten regulation of the industry next year.
Imports and exports on equal scales
With eastbound transportation rates 10 times higher than pre-pandemic levels, vessel operators are quickly returning empty containers to Asia so they can reload them with higher-yielding import loads to the U.S. Food and feed shippers that previously benefited from low contract rates are hurting because their products are being left behind and losing value waiting to get loaded.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttegieg and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Friday sent a letter to a dozen foreign-owned container lines asking them to treat imports and exports equally, utilize less-congested ports, such as Oakland, California, and Portland, Oregon, and provide better service to exporters.
“Shippers of U.S.-grown agricultural commodities and goods have seen reduced service, ever-changing return dates and unfair fees as containers have short-circuited the usual pathways and been rushed to be exported empty. This imbalance is not sustainable and contributes to the logjam of empty containers clogging ports. The poor service and refusal to serve customers when the empty containers are clearly available is unacceptable and, if not resolved quickly, may require further examination and action by the Federal Maritime Commission,” the secretaries wrote.
Lack of berth causes vessel stack up
More than 40% of U.S. container imports move through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, which were overwhelmed this year when existing infrastructure and labor capacity couldn’t keep up with record import levels. More than 100 vessels were stacked up earlier this week near the coast or across the Pacific Ocean waiting for a berth.
The historic 2-to-1 imbalance between imports and exports has widened during the pandemic, increasing carriers’ motivation to rush empty containers back to Asian manufacturing centers. In February, the Agriculture Transportation Coalition and 73 other groups wrote to President Biden and Buttigieg asking the federal government to stop ocean carriers from denying equipment availability in the nation’s heartland.
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Source: Freight Waves
