Transportation Roundup: Ships get bigger, ports get busier

SSGA staff have compiled a roundup of current news in the container transportation industry. Click the links below to view the original stories.

Ships keep getting bigger and bigger and it’s not helping the supply chain woes, according to this Freightwaves writer. The size of the largest container ships has increased almost six times from 1981 to today and could be causing more harm than good. Read more here.

U.S. ports were busy in April, with several ports, including Long Beach and Houston, recording their busiest months in history. Los Angeles had its second-busiest April ever, handling 887,357 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and East and Gulf Coast ports showed an 18.7% gain. Maritime expert John McCown says the strong performance on these ports can be attributed to shippers rerouting cargo to avoid congestion in L.A. and Long Beach. Read more here from American Shipper.

And the ports are expected to be even more hectic with the summer shipping period nearing. A survey conducted by Container xChange found that 51% of its respondents of forwarders, traders and shippers expect the 2022 peak shipping season to be worse than 2021. Respondents identified China’s ongoing lockdowns, container availability, full warehouse, inflation, the Russia/Ukraine crisis and rising prices as the shipping industry’s biggest challenges. Container News writes more here.

On land, chassis providers continue to struggle handling the flow of containers on trains into Chicago rail ramps. But at rail ramps in Dallas, Memphis, Kansas City and St. Louis, conditions seem to be improving for chassis providers compared to a year ago. Read more from the Journal of Commerce here.