As the big ports of Los Angeles and New York continue to grapple with a logjam of cargo ships, which is have an impact on store supplies nationally, ports elsewhere in the country say they may be able to step into the breach.
In Florida, Governor Ronald DeSantis has announced that the Ports of Jacksonville and Miami, among other locations, can handle an increase in new tonnage.
If the problem is one of ships “sitting off the coast somewhere else and they can be rerouted here and we can get those shelves stocked, then we want to be part of that solution,” DeSantis remarked during a visit to the Jacksonville port.
Officials with the Port of New Orleans are reaching out to both importers and ocean carriers in a move to secure business that might otherwise go to the clogged New York, Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, while adding port tours for new customers interested in the port’s operations on the Mississippi River.
The Port of Virginia, with facilities in Newport News, Norfolk, and Portsmouth, has notably increased its imports, with Norfolk seeing a 26% increase in business. “There is no congestion here,” Stephen Edwards, chief executive officer with the Virginia Port, told the publication Freight Waves.
Meanwhile, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have announced a joint policy to fine shipping companies whose cargo containers wait too long at the port’s facilities.
“The terminals are running out of space, and this will make room for the containers sitting on those ships at anchor,” Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach, said in a statement.
Ocean carriers will be charged $100 per container per day at Los Angeles and Long Beach in a move to break the logjam of ships at both ports.
By Garry Boulard
