Written by: Nathaniel Mannor
LA and Long Beach Port account for 40% of all cargo brought into the United States, mainly from China. Lately, though, these ports have seen an uptick in cargo handlings of 30%, meaning that backlogs of cargo ships have also risen. For example, just this Saturday, 73 boats waited at a time outside the Southern California docking areas, twice as many as from August. This has led to some vessels diverting to other ports to dock and unload, alleviating the burden for LA and Long Beach. However, smaller ports in northern areas of America can’t keep up with the heavy sea traffic.
The culprit: none other than Covid-19. As the economy slowly reopened, businesses rushed to place orders to resupply their shelves, yet our government didn’t account for the massive shipping increase this demand produced.
So now Americans have to wait longer for their stuff to arrive, but at least we know it’ll get here. That’s true, but remember we’re nearing the end of the year. And what does that mean? The holiday season. And this marks every mother’s worst nightmare: holiday shopping. The shipping crisis could drastically affect Christmas shopping, especially for small businesses.
Ed Desmond, boss of the US Toy Association, explained that “The larger retailers we work with have relationships with the shippers, and they can weather this storm fairly well, relatively speaking.” Online shopping has exploded during the pandemic, and big businesses also maintain a significant online presence. Since shipping delays putting products on shelves, customers can order their items online through large toy companies. But because mom and pop stores don’t have the means to keep up, they’ll sink under.
Photo from: Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images
