Breaking News! The largest port in the United States has shut down, with 12 docks closed and appointments being forced to cancel

Largest US port shuts down with 12 docks closed and appointment cancellations

Introduction: According to Bloomberg, on the afternoon of April 6 local time in the western United States, the largest container ports in the United States, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, suddenly stopped operations, causing 12 terminals to close, operations to stop, and appointments to be forced to cancel.

Regarding the news of the sudden shutdown of the ports, Overseas Warehouse of Cangsheng learned from foreign media that Ian Weiland, the chief operating officer of Junction Collaborative Transports, a logistics company headquartered in Long Beach, confirmed the news in a post on LinkedIn.

It is reported that the incident involved 12 port areas including APM, TTI, LBCT, ITS, SSA, etc. Basically, all terminals have been closed, drivers have been forced out, and container returns cannot be made. All second-class appointments at the terminals will be cancelled.

• The amount involved exceeds two million, and several sellers have been deceived Another cross-border fraud has been exposed!
• The median is 2 million euros! The average annual sales of online sellers in West Germany are 46 times higher than those in East Germany!
• Exorbitant profits! A team of 4 people earns 25 million yuan a year by engaging in this kind of unscrupulous business

As for the reason for the sudden shutdown of the ports, there is currently no official confirmation, but the industry generally predicts that it was caused by a sudden strike by the port labor union. At the same time, according to Bloomberg’s report, this shutdown was caused by the protracted labor negotiations that remained unresolved, leading to exacerbated labor shortages.

The West Coast port labor negotiations in the United States began on May 12, 2022, and at the end of May, the labor union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) representing the labor side hit a snag in negotiations, and the two sides could not reach a consensus on the negotiation agreement, resulting in the suspension of negotiations. Since then, negotiations have been delayed until the expiration of the contract on July 1, but no agreement has been reached on core issues such as port automation, wages, and pensions. This means that in the current situation where the contract has expired, the strike ban on the labor union has been lifted and a strike could happen at any time. This is also the main reason why the industry generally believes that the port shutdown this time was caused by workers’ strikes.

Currently, there has been no progress in the new contract negotiations between the association and the union. Workers who are not bound by the prohibition of strikes are like time bombs that may explode at any moment and trigger a strike frenzy. The association also said on March 20th that there have been serious delays at some seaports in Los Angeles and Long Beach recently, but because there is no effective contract to regulate striking workers, the delay situation cannot be resolved in time.

Recently, Amazon officially announced that the 2023 Amazon Prime Member Day will begin to accept applications. At present, Amazon sellers have started a frenzy of stockpiling and shipping, but unfortunately, they have encountered the closure of the two largest ports in the western United States. It is unknown when they will reopen, and labor negotiations are still pending. This will certainly have an impact on sellers’ stockpiling and shipping. Later, Warehouses Overseas will continue to pay attention to the latest situation of the ports, and sellers are requested to prepare in advance and adjust their shipping plans.

Conclusion: Sellers who originally stocked their goods in warehouses in Southern California may consider stocking them in warehouses in Northern California to avoid the risk of stockpiling and shipping being blocked by the closure of ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

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