U.S. Senate debates Shipping Act; WSC says address supply chain woes
U.S. consumers are not yet ready to stop spending on goods (inflation, war and rising gas prices - what's that?) with the National Retail Federation expecting a 6-8 percent growth in 2022 and the Port of Los Angeles recording its best-ever container handling in February.
Seen in this background, the move by the U.S. Congress to regulate shipping is attracting flak from carriers. "Americans continue to import goods at record levels — so much so that the U.S. ports and landside logistics workforce is unable to process all the cargo," says the World Shipping Council in its reply to the U.S. Senate discussion of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022.
"Ocean carriers have deployed every vessel and every container available, and are moving more goods than at any point in history but the U.S. landside logjams are keeping vessels stuck outside U.S. ports," WSC says in its reply. "This import congestion is also consuming the capacity and space needed to ensure the uninterrupted flow of U.S. exports.
