Did anyone else watch this?
If you did, please comment with your opinion.
I believe it is recorded on ROKU via NETFLIX and/or YouTube TV if you missed it.
Watched - valid points from every side. Of course, the ocean carriers didn’t present their viewpoint with their own shill.
This is congestion on a classic scale - if and when more ‘capacity’ is constructed and/or hires by all the players and placed in service, there will then be a paucity of traffic for the newly constructed capacity to handle.
The one salient point brought out - Port Terminals are controlled and financed by local governmental authorities - authorities that have continued to be stingy with cash for upgrades necessary to get the terminals to state of the art.
One of the points I got from the piece was that the different segments of the chain were somewhat in their own silos, and blaming each other for the problems. I also noted the Chicago toy seller that said his container was buried under a pile of others for 45 days before they could get to it, but he was still charged storage by the railroad.
Saw a great commercial on TV pertaining to this situation. Started off asking the viewer if they were waiting to get their holiday gifts. Then went on to boast about how their product was 100% sourced in the USA.
I was impressed with the way the entrepreneurial spirit seized the moment and capitalized on their advantage. That’s the way it’s supposed to work isn’t it? Someone sees the problem and offers a point specific solution…
People have been sheltering at home for survival. They only go to stores for essentials. They buy everything possible on line. This is a sudden and radical change. The change has overwhelmed the supply chain with a demand spike. It cannot cope with the spike and cannot be made capable of coping without a massive rebuild that could take years.
The demand spike and supply chain failure is growing worse. Being that it can’t be fixed, it will collapse. Nobody is going to pay the cost that it is adding to product delivery. The supply chain is a component of Chinese product manufacturing, sales, and marketing to the U.S. They will lose that component as the supply chain collapses. We will suffer a shortage of merchandise, but China will suffer a severe economic setback due to loss of product sales.
It would have been wise to have built extra capacity into the supply chain to handle possible surges. But we instead focused on just in time philosophy which implies do only what it needed at the moment.
Chicken Little, anybody?
Are you writing a doomsday science fiction novel? I feel like I’ve already reviewed a couple chapters.
In a similar vein, we had a manufacturer confidently tell us that they because of their foresight and planning, they weren’t having any supply issues with the natural resources required to make their product. No kidding. The product is cement siding. It’s basically made out of dirt. No caffeine- never had it, never will!
In a similar vein, we had a manufacturer confidently tell us that because of their foresight and planning, they weren’t having any supply issues with the natural resources required to make their product. No kidding. The product is cement siding. It’s basically made out of dirt. No caffeine- never had it, never will! [:o)]
Which makes me wonder - did the Customer fail to have a drayman available when the railroad offered the container for delivery?
Of course my experience is before PSR, with that being said, in my experience charges don’t begin to accrew until a shipment has been offered to the customer and for whatever the reason, the customer was not able to take physical possession of the shipment.
Weekend trip to the grocery store met with full shelves, except for Gatoraide which had an excuse note from PepsiCo about limited supply. Only thing that really changed was the price tags.
I’m sorry Murph, I realize that as a middleman you find comfort in thinking that you have consumers square in your sights, and they have no alternatives than to absorb the price increases passed along to them, but I just can’t embrace that thinking.
I see willingness to find acceptable substitutes, to make do with available resources, and to reuse and recycle what retains sufficient value to not be discarded …as the necessary kryptonite required to derail snowballing inflationary ambitions. So, I believe those who are willing and able to furnish locally sourced alternatives are entitled to whatever gains they might secure.
It’s a “build a better moustrap” opportunity, IMO
Absolutely they will look for cheaper alternatives. The easiest way to fix the failing supply chain is to ditch it and find a way of production that does not require such an unwieldly supply chain.
The failing supply chain is raising costs. And consumers are not going to sit there like dummies and take it. It will be much easier to move production to the U.S. than to pay the rising cost of the failing supply chain.
Reality: October sales and industrial production in China both increased.
I wonder about what’s going on at the cross-dock facilities where 40’ container loads are put into 53’ trailers and boxes. Seems like that would have been a choke point just waiting for the current crisis. I can imagine chaotic scenes there.
Rick
It’s kinda interesting to contemplate which alternative will result in the higher final cost? Goods manufactured in America made by geedy American workers, or imports manufactured cheaply but imported by geedy marketeers? [;)]
Well, one point is that the U.S. product marketing has been shown by the Chinese import experience that U.S. consumers want quality only if it comes at the lowest price. Prior to that, U.S. marketers thought they were competing with each other on the basis of quality alone. Now they have learned that quality is not the #1 priority, and they will show China how quickly the U.S. manufactureers can become the lowest quality producer.
Then when you add the savings of eliminating the supply chain costs, the U.S. will have an advantage over Chinese manufactuers.
I am tired of hearing about the multi-faceted cause of the supply chain failure. What is the solution? Is this a fake crisis? Is it being used to deflect the blame for causing inflation? Is inflation actually a good thing because it proves how successful our roaring economy is?
All of the hype I am hearing about grocery store shortages and price increases fails to be borne out in the grocery stores I shop at. Are the constant news videos showing empty shelves really just showing empty shelves that are part of a remodeling shift of inventory locations? Or maybe a store going out of business after the inventory has been removed?
Is it just a fake crisis just to show the consumers that they should not consume so much because it deprives the rest of the world? Fact check: Is the number of container ships waiting outside LA Port getting larger day by day, or getting smaller? What is the number today?
The wealthy actually gain through inflation. I suspect at least part of your answer is there.
Oh, those evil middlemen. [}:)] Where have you been? People have been trying to find alternatives to lower costs for about the last 1000 years.
Yes, recycling is good. Please point out where one might buy enough recycled goods to build an apartment building.