US East Coast strike – over 350 ships bound for shutdown ports
As the International Longshoremen Association (ILA) members picketed ports along the US East and Gulf coasts that had been brought to a standstill there was little sign that industrial action would be resolved quickly.
Employers represented by the United State Maritime Alliance said on Wednesday, “We cannot agree to preconditions to return to bargaining – but we remain committed to bargaining in good faith to address the ILA’s demands and USMX’s concerns.”
The ILA has meanwhile remained steadfast in its position and said that its President Harold Daggett had been subjected to death threats and other union leaders also threatened.
Striking ILA dockworkers have received significant political backing from both US President Joe Biden and Acting US Labor Secretary Julie Su.
Meanwhile container ships laden with cargo continue to steam towards the East Coast ports with few options to but to drop anchor and wait it out when they arrive. So, what does this mean in terms of numbers?
According to analysts Sea-Intelligence there 62 deepsea services being operated by lines that call into East Coast ports which, “unless there is a very rapid and unexpected resolution to the industrial dispute, will have to wait at anchorage at the first port of call on their discharge schedule.
“In addition to that there are vessels which have already commenced their discharge rotation and will have to wait at their second, third or even fourth port of call depending on how much of their schedule they have already completed prior to the strike taking place,” the analyst said.
Quantifying the impact Sea-Intelligence said the first week capacity loss was around 775,000 teu. The impact would be lower in subsequent weeks but would still see a weekly loss in capacity in the range of 443,000 teu.
“Should the strike last 4 weeks, causing almost 7 % of the Global Fleet to be tied up along the US East Coast, the overall impact on the supply and demand equation will be very significant,” commented Sea-Intelligence CEO Alan Murphy.
According to Vizion’s container tracking API on the second day of the strike the number of vessels bound for ILA ports 368 up from 348 the previous day.
Four vessels had moves away from US ports affected by the ILA strike with two headed for the Bahamas, one for Halifax, and one ship sailing to Panama.
The value of goods on the water – $40 billion up from $38 billion on the first day of the strike.