"There are some places, particularly in the Midwest, where there's a complete lack of containers," the Wall Street Journal quotes Philip Damas, the head of container research at Drewry Shipping Consultants, as saying.
There apparently is also a shortage of chassis, the wheeled frames upon which containers ride when transported by truck.
Adding more fuel to the fire, some shipping lines, including industry giant Maersk, have shifted container capacity away from the US just as exports are surging.
“The focus on global inbound logistics has been so great, we’ve really paid relatively little attention to the outbound logistics issue in Western countries,” SCDigest editor Dan Gilmore notes. “I think it’s going to need a little more attention from now on.”
The container shortage is causing real financial problems. In some cases, companies are forced to pay for more expensive air freight because they can’t line up containers and ocean shipping in time.
In other cases, manufacturers may lose “opportunistic” global orders for which they lack planning time to ensure adequate container support – they can’t get the logistics right to meet demands for immediate shipment.
Refrigerated containers are said to be in especially short supply.
The bottom line is that even as US export opportunities rise, significant sales might be lost due to the inability to ship in a timely manner. Exporters must also put much more focus on ensuring container availability, and work more closely with partners such as Freight Forwarders to improve planning and, as a result, container and shipping line availability.
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