Importing – W.B. Skinner

While the log jams at west cost ports has gotten much media attention, a glut of containers is stacking up at the Port of New York and New Jersey, indicative of one of the newest struggles in our supply chain. Rebounding consumer demand has led to record imports through US ports on both coasts and strained every link in the supply chain, including warehouse space.

For the year to August, imports at the port of New York and New Jersey were 26.4 per cent higher than for the same period in 2020. The warehouses where those container loads would normally head first before being distributed are struggling to meet the unprecedented demand.

According to the Financial Times, warehouse operators problems are compounded as they face shortages of everything they need to run their facilities efficiently, from racks and balers to forklift trucks and staff. This equipment is caught in the same shipping delays as other imports.

Since our company operates in the middle of the supply chain, on your behalf, we must contend with untangling these persistent transportation logistics challenges the best we can. WB Skinner is leveraging our decades of experience and industry relationships to help meet clients’ needs for temporary warehousing and distribution of merchandise on the east coast.

We also offer our New York and New Jersey area importers a unique container strip and ship service. We unload the merchandise from the container, separate and load the cartons or drums onto new pallets by batch number, and shrink wrap it. Once it is all shrink wrapped, we arrange for a trucker to pick it up and schedule a delivery to your customer’s loading dock.

We are continuing to monitor these updates and doing our utmost to overcome these hurdles by communicating our collective frustrations to the nation’s container ports and carriers, as well as to the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission, which has taken great interest in this matter. Collectively, our goal, like yours, is to find a quick and sensible resolution to our nation’s troubled supply chain.

Amid the continuing devastation and recovery efforts in the Houston area, the region’s transportation impacts are also being felt across the country.

Ports in Corpus Christi, Freeport, Galveston and much of Houston are closed, pending further assessment of weather conditions. It’s estimated that nearly 10% of trucking across the U.S. will be affected by the storm during this first week.

The region has experienced days of heavy rains, strong winds and catastrophic flooding since Harvey made landfall Friday night. According to Fox Business News, seaports have been closed to most ships since Friday, and rising waters threaten stretches of highways and railroad tracks, bringing freight transportation to a virtual standstill.

It is uncertain when freight companies will resume operations. Even after the weather clears, it could be days before floodwaters recede enough to allow dockworkers back into ports, or trucks to resume normal routes.

Numerous ships scheduled to stop in Houston, including oil tankers, cruise ships and container carriers, are anchored well outside the storm’s path in the Gulf of Mexico. Port Houston appears to have avoided major damage, but some carriers said they could be waiting offshore even after the weather clears because flooded roads will keep dockworkers from reaching the port, or trucks from carrying cargo out.

The storm’s impact is expected to quickly affect the rest of the country.

If you have any questions regarding your shipments during this crisis, please contact Bill Skinner at 201-644-7214.

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