Backup at Panama Canal

[CrusaderFrank]

If by money, you mean surplus military equipment, sure

Maybe we can raise the water level in the lakes down in Central America by sending them tanks and missiles

Well thankfully the Cartels already have some of the US >Ukraine >Black Market hardware

 

[JGalt]

Shipping needs a massive overhaul here in America.
Shipping lanes are just as important as interstates are for the transportation of goods.

This means a massive upgrades for our ports and port cities as well as the Panama Canal.

However, China and Taiwan and India are all using this canal to get goods to the East Coast (because they don't like Shipping to California....too many regulations and more expensive than going through the canal to the east coast.

Panama government is as corrupt of a banana republic as they come....so they are going to be incapable of any upgrades or anything else to the lockes.

So....what to do?

Obviously the US government, in its latest fit of spending to entice our energy grid to be green has basically wiped out its reserves. Borrowing a trillion dollars per month will do that. The USA government is broke.

So....
We definitely need some old fashioned real LEADERSHIP for a change....not the crap we are currently getting from both sides of the aisle.

With an idiot like Pete Buttigieg as head of the DOT, don't look for that to ever happen.

But if you ever need pointers on how to breastfeed an infant, he's be happy to hook you up.

 

[SavannahMann]

Shipping needs a massive overhaul here in America.
Shipping lanes are just as important as interstates are for the transportation of goods.

This means a massive upgrades for our ports and port cities as well as the Panama Canal.

However, China and Taiwan and India are all using this canal to get goods to the East Coast (because they don't like Shipping to California....too many regulations and more expensive than going through the canal to the east coast.

Panama government is as corrupt of a banana republic as they come....so they are going to be incapable of any upgrades or anything else to the lockes.

So....what to do?

Obviously the US government, in its latest fit of spending to entice our energy grid to be green has basically wiped out its reserves. Borrowing a trillion dollars per month will do that. The USA government is broke.

So....
We definitely need some old fashioned real LEADERSHIP for a change....not the crap we are currently getting from both sides of the aisle.

What exactly is your experience in the shipping industry? I only ask because from your comments it is nearly nil.

First regulations. The regulations in California are basically the same as those in Texas or Georgia. California has restrictions on truckers but shipping companies don’t care about that. It is the problem of the broker.

The real question is proximity to the destination.

It cost a lot more to load a container on a Train and send it two thousand miles away than it does to just send the ship with its load of five thousand containers to a closer port.

If you are in Houston you are going to be pretty pissed off to find that you have to pay an additional eight hundred dollars per container to get it shipped in from California by rail.

Shipping companies also object to paying that price again, to ship the empty container back to California. Or pay a penalty for not shipping it back to California.

Cargo ships tend to call at several ports. It is rare that they would offload everything at a single port. On the East Coast. They’ll hit New York, sometimes Boston, Norfolk, Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, and occasionally Miami.

They’ll hit five ports and offload a thousand containers per port and take on a thousand containers headed back where it is going. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. So if it is financially viable for them to pay docking fees and all the other assorted fees five times, traveling the extra five thousand miles is no big deal.

A lot of containers are heavy. Thirty tons is not unusual. Forty tons is reasonably common. In excess of fifty tons is uncommon but not rare. To move that stuff off of a port requires permits in every state of the union. Every state requires overweight or oversized loads to have permitted routing. Those are expensive to get.

So offloading in California to ship to Tennessee would cost a small fortune. You may need specialized equipment to load it on a train and unload it at the destination. Renting heavy lift cranes is not cheap.

Look at the population density map. Most of the country is along the eastern seaboard. So offloading in California to ship to Virginia is just dumb.

Most of the ships which dock in California are dedicated post Suez Max ships. Ships so large they can’t fit through Suez. The show up in Los Angeles and offload ten thousand containers for California. Then they return to China full of export goods and empty containers.

The problems in Panama will be resolved by more rain. Nobody can make that happen. So we are just going to have to be patient. Unless you think Trump can solve the problem by glaring at the clouds to make them start raining.

 

[JohnDB]

What exactly is your experience in the shipping industry? I only ask because from your comments it is nearly nil.

First regulations. The regulations in California are basically the same as those in Texas or Georgia. California has restrictions on truckers but shipping companies don’t care about that. It is the problem of the broker.

The real question is proximity to the destination.

It cost a lot more to load a container on a Train and send it two thousand miles away than it does to just send the ship with its load of five thousand containers to a closer port.

If you are in Houston you are going to be pretty pissed off to find that you have to pay an additional eight hundred dollars per container to get it shipped in from California by rail.

Shipping companies also object to paying that price again, to ship the empty container back to California. Or pay a penalty for not shipping it back to California.

Cargo ships tend to call at several ports. It is rare that they would offload everything at a single port. On the East Coast. They’ll hit New York, sometimes Boston, Norfolk, Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, Jacksonville, and occasionally Miami.

They’ll hit five ports and offload a thousand containers per port and take on a thousand containers headed back where it is going. Sometimes more. Sometimes less. So if it is financially viable for them to pay docking fees and all the other assorted fees five times, traveling the extra five thousand miles is no big deal.

A lot of containers are heavy. Thirty tons is not unusual. Forty tons is reasonably common. In excess of fifty tons is uncommon but not rare. To move that stuff off of a port requires permits in every state of the union. Every state requires overweight or oversized loads to have permitted routing. Those are expensive to get.

So offloading in California to ship to Tennessee would cost a small fortune. You may need specialized equipment to load it on a train and unload it at the destination. Renting heavy lift cranes is not cheap.

Look at the population density map. Most of the country is along the eastern seaboard. So offloading in California to ship to Virginia is just dumb.

Most of the ships which dock in California are dedicated post Suez Max ships. Ships so large they can’t fit through Suez. The show up in Los Angeles and offload ten thousand containers for California. Then they return to China full of export goods and empty containers.

The problems in Panama will be resolved by more rain. Nobody can make that happen. So we are just going to have to be patient. Unless you think Trump can solve the problem by glaring at the clouds to make them start raining.

Loading on trains is cheaper than truck....always has been and continues to be especially if you can be flexible about when the cargo arrives. Trucks are for more expedited freight. It's also easier to predict when it will arrive.

Laredo TX doesn't have all those warehouses for no reason at all. Often it can be cheaper to offload in Mexico and truck/rail it to TN.

Obviously the population density is in the Eastern seaboard...but Western US has most of its population up and down the entire coast.

Ships can go south of Africa and avoid the Suez....but it needs an extra week and be of sufficient size to deal with rougher oceans.

It would be great if the Suez was larger and deeper. More ships could utilize it.
Same with Panama Canal. But upgrades are not in the future for either one which is the point I was making.

Shipping is definitely about costs. Cheaper takes the dollars every time.