On a recent flight, I could see as the plane pivoted over the water the lines of container ships backed up and waiting to unload. That flight was back in November during Restoration Weekend. A more recent flight showed cleaner waters, but not, as the Wall Street Journal notes, because the supply chain crisis has been solved.
If you’ve gone to a store lately, you know it’s not.
The backup of container ships waiting to enter the nation’s busiest port complex isn’t letting up. But it has moved farther from shore.
Only about 30 vessels sat within sight of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach this week, waiting for berths at a gateway that has come to symbolize U.S. supply-chain bottlenecks. More than 60 others destined for the port complex remained in waters farther out to sea, some hundreds or even thousands of miles away, including ships that reduced speed during their voyage from Asia to delay their arrival.
The ships are complying with a voluntary system set up last month by maritime officials because of fears the ports can’t safely accommodate the crush of waiting vessels as winter weather sweeps in with strong winds and rough seas.
I’m sure that this is in no way a political decision to avoid embarrassing Democrats.
The system has hidden from view a big part of the armada of cargo ships waiting to unload. But the backup at the biggest gateway for U.S. container imports remains as large as ever, with the lineup of vessels now stretching across the Pacific, signaling that big volumes of cargo are still heading for port terminals, warehouses and transportation networks that have been swamped by the imports.
If you can’t see it, then it’s easier for us to lie to you.
Leave a Reply