A lot of people are probably already aware of this but I saw a story on NewsNation last night that Covid-19 has reduced manpower at the LA Port causing a back up of ships waiting to be unloaded. Although unrelated to last week’s blockage in the Suez Canal last week, the effect is the same. Hundreds of container ships are sitting idly off the southern California coast waiting for their turn to get unloaded. Since much of our hobby’s products come from China, this is undoubtedly affecting the supply chain. I’m seeing more and more items on Walthers website listed as Out of Stock. It’s also affecting retail sales as well. I bought a set of traffic lights through Amazon last month and right from the start I realized it would be more than a month for it to be delivered when I saw it was being sent by a slow boat from China. Now we also have the bottleneck at the LA Port so there’s no telling when the item might arrive. Fortunately, it’s an item I don’t have to have immediately.
Yep. Just read an article on how a bunch of container ships are sitting in San Francisco bay waiting for the spots at the port of Oakland to open up and they are delays there. It isn’t as if we have been waiting on our toys for weeks, months and years. This will just add to it. I guess this is something for us to jaw about.
I ordered 10 Mubachi FK-280SA-14200 from a place that claimed to have some instock. It was less than $4 a piece with shipping so I took a chance. Interestingly it cam accross the ocean and through LA with no problem. But according to USPS tracking it has been moving within the system heading to it’s next destination since the 17th of March when it was at Pocatello ID.
The conversation out there now, is shipping continer shortages.
Mike
There’s no aspect of the logistics chain that isn’t disrupted or hasn’t been disrupted for a year now.
I buy off eBay for almost all my needs because all of the places I have bought from for years have closed. No electronic parts stores anymore and only one RC Hobby Shop left that stock a tiny amount of train items left in Bakersfield.
So far I guess I’ve been lucky, no long delays in shipping. My China eBay orders have all been within the eBay shipping times and some have been faster than US orders. My recent US orders have been very fast, all ahead of promised time.
Mel
My Model Railroad
http://melvineperry.blogspot.com/
Bakersfield, California
I’m beginning to realize that aging is not for wimps.
Well, now we know why there’s a shortage of shipping containers. Sitting on ships and full of stuff when they need to be emptied and returning to China.
Who did you order from? I’ve been looking for these motors for some time but the supply seems to have totally dried up. I had six on order but they were never received.
I just ordered on 3/30 wire markers to number wires. Delivery estimated at May 25 through June 10. They must weigh about an ounce total. Don’t know why they don’t plan to mail them.
I do most of my buying from Amazon now. Whatever I buy directly from them will probably arrive within a day or two. If it’s from one of their many third party vendors, it can take weeks or months. It’s interesting to track the package online to see where the hold ups are.
It’s no different than having a shortage of freight cars. Eventually cargo is going to back up because of no way to ship it.
I am very lucky to have three very good electronic supply stores I can choose from. Unfortunately the closest one is two hours away, and the three of them are nowhere near one another.
-Kevin
Mail them on what? The planes aren’t flying either.
On the thought of emptying shipping containers and sending them back. I thought that most were never returned because it was cheaper to ship iron ore and coal and make new ones. Perhaps I am mistaken again?
That ship stuck in the Suez had a bazillion containers on it. The US is a net importer, do you think they all get dumped here? If they did we would see stacks of empty containers somewhere
Yes and those one were mostly headed to Europe. You see youtube spiels about using empty containers for the basis of a house, an underground bunker, etc.
An empty container on a ship takes up the same space as a full one.
Just try getting stuff out of the USA!!! [banghead][banghead] [sigh]
I’ve gotten three packages mailed to me from three different sources in China over the last two months and they all got to me in less than two weeks !
Mark.
Big piles of empty containers do exist. But, two things happen: either they pile up somewhere (New Jersey is a common place) or they enter domestic service. Chinese containers are a common sight in agricultural areas because they were cheap semi-disposable trailers. Here in DC, for reasons I cannot begin to figure out, yellow 20ft MSC containers are frequently used as storage at construction sites. I guess a lot of them made it to Baltimore and never went home.
[quote user=“Mark R.”]
NittanyLion
ndbprr
Don’t know why they don’t plan to mail them.
Mail them on what? The planes aren’t flying either.
I’ve gotten three packages mailed to me from three different sources in China over the last two months and they all got to me in less than two weeks !
A boxcar is just a container sitting on wheeled trucks. They cleverly put the access doors on each side instead of just at the one end. The guy(s) who “invented” the shipping container did no such thing.