Shipping Disruption and Global Supply Chains

Global supply chains disrupted as record-breaking queues of container ships are stalled outside major ports

A myriad of container ships, like the one pictured above, remain stranded outside American ports. Accordingly, the shipping disruption continues to shake global supply chains and attracts international news. Moreover, cargo vessels contain goods that millions of consumers rely on from their favorite ecommerce platforms. Recently, according to a BBC News report, Marine Traffic, a ship-tracking website, tallied over 50 container ships outside Los Angeles and Long Beach. Those ports which handle most of China’s exports have unwelcome extensions from days to weeks.

So what’s the hold up?

In today’s economy fulfillment services and supply chain management take many forms. From 3PL to 4PL and more, as we’ve written about several times, advances in technology and methodology seemingly have delivery down to a science. However, Human Resources may be the culprit in today’s shipping disruption. As a result, ships carrying containers to port are met by a limited port staff. Consequently, there are not enough drivers for lorries and containers begin to stack up in port.

Shipping disruption solutions, how will this end?

As containers stack up logistic engineers divert ships to other nearby ports. However, the new destinations have some limits to their ability to accommodate unexpected vessels. Finally, most ports are congested and supply chains begin to falter. Experts point to a lack of investment from US ports which were already at risk pre pandemic. There doesn’t seem to be a quick solution and now more than ever it’s critical for partnering with the best fulfillment services available.

If you found this post useful, our blog provides more helpful articles about supply chain and fulfillment services.

Learn more about fulfillment centers and supply chains by contacting one of our consultants today. Click here to contact My FulFillment Company.

By | 2021-10-19T17:14:59-04:00 October 20th, 2021|Categories: ecommerce, Fulfillment, Inventory, Shipping|Tags: , , , |Comments Off on Shipping Disruption and Global Supply Chains

About the Author:

Eric Holder is a Marketing Communications Expert with 20 + years experience, in both agency & in-house settings. Holder is astute at identifying Market Differentiators & utilizing teams to leverage Content, SEO / SEM, Social Media, PR, CX, Influencers & Analytics that produce MQLs.