(Brunswick, Ga.) Last week, new John Deere tractors rolled through the sprawling port of Brunswick, Ga., their distinctive green paint glistening in the sun. The longshoremen drove the tractors up a ramp into the belly of the Leo Spirita ship that will take them to Asia.
Orderly as it may have appeared, the tractor convoy was an example of the extensive efforts by East Coast ports, railroads, truckers and shipping companies to reorganize supply chains after a container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore last month. The bridge collapse led to the closure of most of the Port of Baltimore, which last year handled 1.3 million tons of agricultural and construction machinery, as well as 850,000 cars and light trucks.
According to the Georgia Port Authority, the John Deere tractors would normally have been shipped from Baltimore, by train from the factory in Waterloo, Iowa. Instead, the tractors had to be trucked to Brunswick, a journey that adds time and cost.
“If we didn’t have Brunswick, I think the supply chain would be hurt in the auto sector,” said Griff Lynch, chief executive of the Georgia Port Authority, who oversaw Brunswick’s ambitious expansion. He said, however, that some areas of the port were now congested and acknowledged that there was no way Brunswick could accommodate all of Baltimore’s vehicles — in April, the port expected to receive about 17,000 vehicles more than the 70,000 which he normally processes within a month.
Similar major rearrangements to cope with the Baltimore shutdown are happening across the East Coast, for vehicles, shipping containers and coal.
Huge pressures
But not all adjustments go well. The trucking industry is under enormous pressure, and executives say they’re struggling to get drivers and loads to where they’re needed on time, without losing money.
Akram Ayyad, owner of 410 Transport, a Maryland trucking company, said his costs have skyrocketed because he now has to transport goods further, to the port of New York and New Jersey, instead of Baltimore, and its customers were reluctant to pay more.
“We are dying here,”
did he declare.
The near-total closure of the Port of Baltimore is also hurting shipping companies, which have had a difficult year. They have already redirected their ships to avoid the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Houthi militias attack cargo ships, and have faced delays in the Panama Canal, whose passages have been reduced due to low levels of water.
The disruptions in Baltimore are a worrying reminder of serious supply chain problems in 2021 and 2022, which have sent transportation costs through the roof and helped fuel inflation, which remains high.
To mitigate the impact of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, the Biden administration is turning to a special supply chain disruption task force it established in 2021. “This helped to alleviate friction very, very quickly,” said Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council.
Port authorities say they can absorb Baltimore’s cargo for now, largely because the supply chain is not under the same strain as it was two or three years ago, when the pandemic caused a flood of imports.
PHOTO GEORGE ETHEREDGE, THE NEW YORK TIMES
Newly arrived vehicles are stored at the Port of Newark, New Jersey before being transported to their final destination. Newark is one of the Eastern ports that absorbs cargo that cannot currently be handled in Baltimore.
The Port of New York and New Jersey handles about two-thirds of Baltimore’s containers and a third of its auto cargo, said Beth Rooney, director of the Port Authority. She learned around 3 a.m. on March 26 that the Key Bridge had been hit and quickly contacted her counterpart in Maryland to offer assistance.
“Because of our proximity to Baltimore, I immediately thought we were going to receive a lot of their cargo,” Ms.me Rooney.
Rick Cotton, chief executive of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said that even with cargo coming from Baltimore, the port’s container traffic was about 20 percent below levels reached during the pandemic rush.
But port officials said operations could begin to show signs of strain if the Port of Baltimore does not reopen by the end of May, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to restore normal traffic in the port. The main problem will be the transportation of goods from the port to their destinations.
“As these additional shocks occur,” Mr. Cotton said, “the system is under extraordinary pressure. »
Difficulties in the automobile
Smaller auto carriers, which have struggled in recent years because car sales were hit by the pandemic, chip shortages and strikes, have been unable to invest enough in their fleets , said Sarah Riggs Amico, president and CEO of Jack Cooper Transport, an auto transporter. “The supply chain is relatively under threat in the automotive sector right now,” she said.
Container carriers are also suffering.
Mr. Ayyad, the Baltimore trucker, said he usually charged his customers about $300 to transport a used vehicle in a container to the Port of Baltimore for shipment to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Shipping the cars to Newark costs him about $1,050 per trip, but his customers refuse to pay more. However, he continues to offer this service to keep drivers who might quit if there is not enough work for them.
Mr Ayyad said he was dipping into his savings to keep the business afloat. “We’re spending pretty much everything we have right now,” he said.
Before the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, Kathleen Kropp’s company, Triple H Trucking, with 15 trucks, transported containers of consumer goods to York, Pennsylvania, from Baltimore, a 60-mile trip (60 miles). Today, trucks must go from Baltimore to the Virginia port of Norfolk to pick up containers and bring them to York before returning to Baltimore.
According to Mme Kropp says its customers pay more, but the drivers earn much less because they make fewer trips each week. Customers stay with her, she says, despite the higher costs. “I really believe people are trying to help, because people are hurting,” she said.
This article was published in the New York Times.
Read the original version (in English; subscription required)
reference: www.lapresse.ca