US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has unveiled plans to restore shipping services that have been disrupted during the ongoing shipping crisis. The plan is mainly focused on increasing capacity at the Port of Oakland in California, which has largely seen carriers suspend service in attempts to send empty containers back to Asia. As part of the partnership, the USDA will join the Port of Oakland to set up a new 25-acre “pop-up” site to enable companies to fill empty shipping containers with their commodities. Karen Ross, California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary said, “I wish to thank the USDA for making this investment. It will help improve access to overseas markets for California agriculture producers at a critical time of year for exports of high-value specialty crop.”
The latest assessment of spot freight rates from Drewry’s World Container Index shows that the composite index slightly decreased 0.2% compared to last week, although it remains 80% higher than one year ago. Rotterdam to Shanghai and New York to Rotterdam decreased the most at 3% each, while Los Angeles to Shanghai and Shanghai to Los Angeles saw small decreases of 1%. The only route to have the spot rate increase is Shanghai to New York, which rose 2%. The other routes all remained constant compared to the previous week.
Some economists are beginning to be bullish on the congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. According to Freight Waves, the number of ships waiting for berths at the two ports has dropped to 78 this week. This is the lowest number in the last three months, and 28% lower than the record of 109 ships just one month ago. However, economists warn that it is too early to tell if this decrease is just a break before another increase, or if it is the beginning of the end.
The Port of Shanghai and the Port of Los Angeles, along with both cities and other key stakeholders such as C40 cities, Maersk, CMA CGM, Shanghai International Ports Group, and COSCO, have announced a partnership to create the first transpacific green shipping corridor. The goal of this partnership is to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions through the introduction of low, ultra-low, and zero-carbon fueled ships throughout the 2020s, development of best practices to improved efficiency, and improving air quality in the ports of Shanghai and Los Angeles through better port operations.