By Aneta Klosek, Director, Trade Compliance, LexisNexis Risk Solutions
Blockage of the Suez Canal in 2021 by the merchant vessel Ever Given was a physical reminder of the vulnerability of global trade and how easily it can be disrupted. Beyond failures of physical infrastructure sit largely invisible threats to the administration of global supply chains.
Port of Oakland Executive Director Danny Wan defended the decision by Port Commissioners and the City of Oakland to proceed with negotiations for the Oakland A’s to locate a baseball park and condominium complex at the Port’s Howard Terminal site.
Paul Matthews, the new executive director of the Port of South Louisiana, says recent enactment of the new Infrastructure Bill signed by the President and supported by the Louisiana Congressional delegation will help Louisiana and Mississippi ports expand and provide an alternative to congestion at West Coast and East Coast ports
On January 19th, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its “spend plans” outlining the specific inland waterways projects that were allocated funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Infrastructure Package) totaling $2.22 billion.
In his “2022 State of the Port of Los Angeles” Executive Director Gene Seroka announced the Port processed about 10.7 million TEUs during 2021 which was 13% higher than its previous record.
John Porcari, the Biden-Harris Administration’s Port Envoy, warned that long-standing shortfalls in U.S. infrastructure spending going back generations have created a reliance on an infrastructure “that our grandparents built.”
California’s Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing $2.3 billion in state funding to help ease congestion and supply chain problems that continue to impact the California Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland.
Most empty container are stagnant on vessels waiting in fast-growing lines at ports to get offloaded, meaning even more congestion and creating extreme bottlenecking throughout the supply chain.
As the backlog of import containers at container terminals has declined, Eugene Seroka, executive director Port of Los Angeles, said the Port is turning its attention to the backlog of empty containers and may impose fees on empty containers that dwell on terminals “excessively.”