Post by frozenexpress on Mar 17, 2012 15:48:13 GMT -5
ILA Strike Threat Could Spark Early Peak Surcharge
Peter T. Leach,
Senior Editor
Harold Daggett did trans-Pacific carriers a favor by threatening to strike East Coast ports this year, a veteran carrier executive said.
When the president of the International Longshoreman’s Association told The Journal of Commerce’s Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference in Long Beach Tuesday that his union would strike East and Gulf Coast ports if it doesn’t get the settlement it wants in talks to renew the contract expiring Sept. 30, it provoked moves by cargo shippers to divert Asian imports to the West Coast.
This will sop up excess cargo capacity on the eastbound trans-Pacific trade to West Coast ports, enabling carriers to implement an early peak season surcharge, the former carrier executive told me. The executive, who was formerly director of the trans-Pacific trades for a major Asian carrier, asked not to be identified.
After Daggett made his fiery statement in a panel with USMX Chairman and CEO Jim Capo at TPM on Tuesday, several shippers told me at lunch they are already moving up contingency plans to shift cargo away from all-water routes to the East Coast for delivery to Middle West and East Coast destinations by intermodal rail, which is a faster, but more expensive route.
A number of logistics providers also said they expect their shipping customers to ask them to shift their their cargo through the West Coast away from the East Coast.
Janet Lewis, shipping analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities in Hong Kong, told TPM on Monday that ocean transportation costs 18 cents to ship a pair of jeans from Hong Kong to Columbus, Ohio via the East Coast. “So it costs 3 cents more to ship it via the West Coast. That cheap insurance to make sure they get there,” said the former carrier executive.
COMMENTS
Ocean shippers can make all the contingency plans they feel necessary to divert the cargo but that will prove useless. After years of individual truckers from coast to coast being suppressed by low rates from the big box retailers,port delays,wasted time waiting in long lines to have junk chassis repaired, "which should not be the job of a trucker in the first place," truckers nationwide may shut down the ports in solidarity at the first sign of any longshoremen action in the east. Without trucks port land based transportation will soon be at a standstill. The rail cannot even attempt to move enough cargo with the inland bottle necks that will be created within a matter of the first few days while truckers at ports and inland rail drop off yards will organize by the thousands to participate. Truckers have a way about spreading the word very quickly when there is a massive movement which this will become at the drop of the ha....
- By ilovdieselsmoke on 3/17/12
this report is faulty. The veteran executive who did not want his name reported forgets that ILA and ILWU will coordinate any possible strike action.
The whole concept of potentially bypassing a strike by shifting entry coasts is
naive. This labor panel should never have been aloowed to develop the way it did.
At this point there should be no comments "off the record".
The ILA/Employers negotiations/bargaining should be allowed to take it course and no one, the media or shippers should issue misleading statement6s which will only serve to upset the negotiations between the parties.
- By bengt henriksen on 3/8/12
Peter T. Leach,
Senior Editor
Harold Daggett did trans-Pacific carriers a favor by threatening to strike East Coast ports this year, a veteran carrier executive said.
When the president of the International Longshoreman’s Association told The Journal of Commerce’s Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference in Long Beach Tuesday that his union would strike East and Gulf Coast ports if it doesn’t get the settlement it wants in talks to renew the contract expiring Sept. 30, it provoked moves by cargo shippers to divert Asian imports to the West Coast.
This will sop up excess cargo capacity on the eastbound trans-Pacific trade to West Coast ports, enabling carriers to implement an early peak season surcharge, the former carrier executive told me. The executive, who was formerly director of the trans-Pacific trades for a major Asian carrier, asked not to be identified.
After Daggett made his fiery statement in a panel with USMX Chairman and CEO Jim Capo at TPM on Tuesday, several shippers told me at lunch they are already moving up contingency plans to shift cargo away from all-water routes to the East Coast for delivery to Middle West and East Coast destinations by intermodal rail, which is a faster, but more expensive route.
A number of logistics providers also said they expect their shipping customers to ask them to shift their their cargo through the West Coast away from the East Coast.
Janet Lewis, shipping analyst at Macquarie Capital Securities in Hong Kong, told TPM on Monday that ocean transportation costs 18 cents to ship a pair of jeans from Hong Kong to Columbus, Ohio via the East Coast. “So it costs 3 cents more to ship it via the West Coast. That cheap insurance to make sure they get there,” said the former carrier executive.
COMMENTS
Ocean shippers can make all the contingency plans they feel necessary to divert the cargo but that will prove useless. After years of individual truckers from coast to coast being suppressed by low rates from the big box retailers,port delays,wasted time waiting in long lines to have junk chassis repaired, "which should not be the job of a trucker in the first place," truckers nationwide may shut down the ports in solidarity at the first sign of any longshoremen action in the east. Without trucks port land based transportation will soon be at a standstill. The rail cannot even attempt to move enough cargo with the inland bottle necks that will be created within a matter of the first few days while truckers at ports and inland rail drop off yards will organize by the thousands to participate. Truckers have a way about spreading the word very quickly when there is a massive movement which this will become at the drop of the ha....
- By ilovdieselsmoke on 3/17/12
this report is faulty. The veteran executive who did not want his name reported forgets that ILA and ILWU will coordinate any possible strike action.
The whole concept of potentially bypassing a strike by shifting entry coasts is
naive. This labor panel should never have been aloowed to develop the way it did.
At this point there should be no comments "off the record".
The ILA/Employers negotiations/bargaining should be allowed to take it course and no one, the media or shippers should issue misleading statement6s which will only serve to upset the negotiations between the parties.
- By bengt henriksen on 3/8/12