White House plan aims to help key West Coast ports stay open 24/7 to ease supply chain bottlenecks

[Klaralven]

WASHINGTON -- As supply chain bottlenecks around the world threaten to hobble the U.S. holiday shopping season, President Joe Biden will unveil a plan Wednesday to try to ease West Coast delays at the ports of Long Beach, California, and Los Angeles by expanding round-the-clock operations.

Central to this plan are commitments by some of the nation’s leading retailers and shippers to ramp up overnight and off-hours operations at Long Beach and Los Angeles.

FedEx, UPS, Walmart and Home Depot will announce their expanded-hours operation plans during a virtual meeting Wednesday with Biden, according to senior administration officials who briefed reporters Tuesday night.

The officials were granted anonymity in order to discuss private sector commitments that had yet to be made public.

The Port of Los Angeles will announce Wednesday that it is shifting to 24/7 operations, following a similar transition by the Port of Long Beach in September of this year, the official said.

Together, the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles account for approximately 40% of the shipping containers entering the United States.

Another key stakeholder in the plan is the powerful International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents thousands of workers at the ports. The ILWU has previously said its members would be willing to work these extra shifts.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/13/supply-chain-biden-backs-running-west-coast-ports-24-7-to-ease-bottlenecks.html

I wonder how much of the problem is the burgeoning third-party sales business on Amazon and now others like Walmart. There must be tens of thousands of third-party sellers ordering goods from East Asia for stocking and fulfillment themselves or for shipment to Amazon for fulfillment by Amazon. They would be a myriad of small orders shipped in a totally uncoordinated and unplanned way.

[JustAnotherGen]

1. I'm in Trade Compliance ask me anything

There is still a back up of commodities for production, loss of life of dock workers, impacts from the fed gov shut down in 2018, etc. etc.

Less with consumers and more with B2B and demands impacted by C-19 as well as under staffed CBP officers. 24 * 7 operations means there will be 24 * 7 import reviews by CBP. We need this in Elizabeth NJ too.

I have my company (made in the USA manufacturer) C-TPAT certified so we aren't experiencing the inspection delays by CBP. Not enough USA Importers of Record are C-TPAT certified - and they are having huge problems.

[Nictuku]

3. I have a couple

I'm not familiar with some of the acronyms you used. What is B2B ? and what is CBP?

Is the problem more with not enough dock workers? Or is it not enough Trucks/Truck Drivers? Is it increased demand? Is it due to any vaccine mandates?

If it is about not enough workers, it just blows my mind that there are a lot of immigrants who would probably love to be trained and do the work.

Has this been building for a while?

Who benefits from these bottleneck/slowdowns? Doesn't it give cause for retailers to raise their prices (and add towards inflation), could it have some kind of greedy/sinister purpose? (I know, tin foil hat time)

[Nictuku]

4. I found some answers to some of my questions

This article was pretty informative:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-container-ships-cant-sail-around-the-california-ports-bottleneck-11632216603

[littlemissmartypants]

5. Business to business and Customs, Border Protection nt

[WA-03 Democrat]

7. Acronym help

B2B - business to business sales (not retail)
CBP - Customs Boarder Patrol (agents who inspection imported goods shipments)

[JustAnotherGen]

8. Sure

B2B - Business to Business
CBP - Customs and Border Protection. We tend to focus on the citizenship aspects of this team - but their number one priority is tax collection via tariffs.

Literally hands at the dock are key reason. Add in The Port of L.A., became the first port in the Western Hemisphere to move 10 million containers in a 12-month period in June 2021.

No one benefits from this. Not a single person.

What covid showed is that there is ZERO resiliency in the Global Supply Chain.

I'm not aware of the Longshoreman's Union having a vaccine mandate. I do know from a few CBP officers that there has been a high number of deaths at the dock, and CBP officers themselves died during covid. It would be very hard on a CBP officers salary to ask someone to transfer from the Philly Port - where they can live in Bucks County PA - to move to Los Angeles.

[Klaralven]

6. Would Amazon third party sellers be getting B2B shipments not C-TPAT certified typically?

[JustAnotherGen]

9. No Amazon Third Party Sellers are not part of B2B

B2B is focused on US Manufacturers, Assemblers, and Finishers. We became too reliant on Asia Pacific for finished goods . . . think toilet paper, face masks, etc. etc. We are still reliant on them to finished/assemble/manufacture with components.

Those third part sellers actually could be C-TPAT certified - but it would be rare. They don't have the trade, safety, security, etc. etc. to get over the finish line.

Even C-TPAT certified and with the nature of our business (Cloud Server Compute and Storage Manufacturer -ie kept America Running during the shutdown) we are back behind Level 2s . . . waiting for low static screws with nylock, and a massive transfer of chassis from our tiny China facility.

The China facility is ONLY for production in Asia - IE -we don't import finished goods from there. US companies do NOT want server racks/servers made in China. Not bueno. Not secure. Not safe for America.

Also - third party sellers tend to go DHL Air. They can't fil a container. They just can't. They aren't buying and transferring at a large enough volume to support for example - the General Average insurance.

[Botany]

2. So the Biden White House is working to get the problems fixed?

And this will get absolutely no coverage in the media.

BTW having less cheap Chinese made plastic crap @ WalMart to me is not a problem.

[JustAnotherGen]

10. Yes - and there was a white paper

Delivered to Los Angeles port last month with Key Stakeholders in Trade Compliance saying -

If you want more Made in the USA - do this - not that.

We have the opportunity to lead on Build Back better with a focus on Green Technology and Manufacturing practices, low electronic waste, reduction in environmental impact.

The Trump Admin ignored EVERYTHING. Seriously - they had - and we are still living with 25% tariffs on parts and components (to include pieces of plastics). Lets get this port cleared, get items needed to manufacture HERE in the USA to their production facilities, and lets talk about lowering tariffs on parts and components -

and doubling them on finished goods.