I am in a business that relies on transport. Unfortunately, most of the “American” companies outsource their stuff to Asia, repack it and slap a USA label on it. Prices for a containers out of China is running close to $5000 per. Which is up 400% from a year ago. They are running out of containers. Seriously.
We don’t make enough stuff here to ship them back. It’s not worth it to them to ship empty containers back - at least not yet. So we have 100’s of miles of containers just sitting around. Maybe they’d make decent housing for the homeless.
Dockworkers are playing the teacher’s union game. Social distance. Half staff. Dozens of ships are docked off ports waiting to be unloaded. Slowdown. (quo ELO soundtrack). They want more concessions. Like teachers unions.
If you are in export business, you can get a good deal. If you want to import, you gotta wait. Priority goes to high margin goods who can afford to pay to jump the line.
iPhones, TVs, gaming consoles. They get shipped promptly
Commodities and input materials for domestic manufacturers, cheap stuff, just wait. It’ll arrive before 2023. And cost you 20%-30% more. But it’s coming.
Guy I know here in town bought a bunch of empties. He setup a storage business on a vacant lot he owned, and sells extra containers to the public. He's doing really well right now.
Ruckert Terminals in Baltimore put out a letter last week stating they are not accepting ANY new inbound shipments in the month of June. This is one of the largest break bulk facilities on the east coast.
In addition, we are hearing that Cape Canaveral is full to capacity with lumber right now.
My company ships 40’ containers of lumber from northern Europe to the US. Container costs and boat space has tripled in the last 6 months.