Bottleneck from U.S. Port Drama Pushes up Global Freight Rates

By Henning Gloystein

SINGAPORE, Feb 16 (Reuters) – A U.S. West Coast port strike is pushing up transport freight charges as delays in offloading and taking over new cargo imply container ships are unavailable for brand new orders.

Dozens of container ships are mendacity in wait off the massive U.S. West Coast ports of Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego. Many of them have been ready greater than per week to enter port to unload or tackle new cargoes, in keeping with Thomson Reuters transport knowledge.

“The strike is affecting a lot of vessels. There’s a lot of delays and this is pushing up panamax (container) rates as fewer ships are available for new orders,” a number one Singapore-based dealer stated.

The Shanghai Containerized Freight Index for U.S. West Coast (USWC) charges rose 23 factors final week to 2,265 and brokers stated quotes had risen an additional 5 factors on Monday.

USWC, along with European port charges, have the heaviest weighting within the total Shanghai index, with a weighting of 20 % every.

Ports alongside the West Coast are close to gridlock because of the months-long dispute between dockworkers and a bunch representing shippers and terminal operators.

Japanese carmaker Honda Motor Co Ltd plans to gradual manufacturing at a few of its vegetation in North America because of a elements scarcity brought on by the partial shutdown of ports alongside the West Coast.

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd, the maker of Subaru vehicles, stated it could proceed flying automotive elements to its U.S. manufacturing unit past an preliminary association by means of the tip of February.

With cargo delays rippling by means of the U.S. economic system, President Barack Obama dispatched Labor Secretary Tom Perez to California on Saturday to assist dealer an settlement between the transport firms and dock employees.

Shippers stated that different ports, particularly these on the U.S. East coast, had been making an attempt to make the most of the strike to achieve market share.

“U.S. East coast ports are offering discounts to snatch market share from their West Coast competitors,” one shipper stated.

(Editing by Alan Raybould)