Ships are piling up in some West Coast ports, and commercial shipping prices are spiking amid a labor fight between port operators and workers, threatening to trigger a new round of supply chain disruptions that could lead to shortages or higher prices.
The fight is sparking concerns among lawmakers who worry surging container prices could ripple through the economy and hit all sorts of consumer goods in a repeat of supply chain problems following pandemic shutdowns.
“The shippers I know are afraid of what might happen if we shut down our ports,” said Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “People are concerned.”
Data from logistics platform Go Comet shows median delay times trending upward this week in several key West Coast ports, including Los Angeles, Seattle and Long Beach, Calif. Wait times at the port of Seattle are now more than a week.
People who study the data say the rates for shipping containers on the West Coast are rapidly rising.
“Container rates for importing 40-foot containers to the United States’s West Coast over the past week have jumped 20 percent week-over-week, likely as a result of the anticipated congestion at the ports. This follows a dramatic lull in rates after last year’s highs,” said Eytan Buchman, who works with the logistics booking company Freightos.
In the port of Oakland, Calif., operations were shut down over the weekend due to a labor strike but resumed Monday “with heavy traffic...
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