Many industries have experienced difficulties regarding supply chain and being able to meet demand. Many companies in the lighting industry, for example, have implemented price increases with supply chain issues being listed as a reason for doing so. In a recent update from freight forwarders, there is no light at the end of the tunnel yet.
Long Beach and LA ports have 40-45 vessels anchored at a time, with 11-15 day wait times. Compare this to March 2021, where there were “only” 22 ships anchored at a time. The congestion has doubled since then, which was to be expected to a degree given the upcoming holiday season which is nearly upon us. Additional causes for this delay remained rooted in the lack of available containers and congested ground transportation. Chassis availability remains tight with some terminals not releasing them. Dual transactions are vital in this situation in order to keep moving cargo as efficiently as possible. Other ports in the U.S. also continue to see considerable congestion, making reroutes from West Coast ports to East Coast and Gulf ports not a viable option as the same points of congestion are present there as well. Freight forwarders continue to believe that the situation might become more predictable by late 2022, but a return to normal conditions is still years away.