Anytime you go to the grocery store, chances are you can’t help but notice the supply-chain crisis that has made life difficult for everyday Americans over the past few months.
Some of the problems with our supply chain stem from the backlog at the ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach. Staffing issues, environmental regulations, and, well, California just being California, have made the situation worse.
Thankfully, not all supply-chain traffic travels through California. Ports in the Southeastern U.S. have worked hard to help relieve the supply-chain crisis. The Port of Savannah on the Georgia coast is one example. January marked the 18th consecutive record month for the port.
“The steps we have taken to add capacity have broken the logjam in global logistics for our customers and created jobs throughout the supply chain,” said Griff Lynch, executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority. “The dedication and hard work of our GPA employees, the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA), and our other partners throughout the logistics community have also played a key role to keep cargo flowing.”
The GPA added 145 new jobs in 2021 and has opened up five pop-up container yards in Atlanta, Statesboro, and Savannah, as well as the Appalachian Regional Port near the Georgia-Tennessee border and in Rocky Mount, N.C., to help relieve the congestion and move cargo along the supply chain.
Shippers have begun to see Savannah and other ports in the Southeast as alternatives to the mess that is California’s port system. Florida’s ports have seen such an increase — in part due to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ invitation to shippers to come to the state — that the state has had to build up some of the infrastructure around the ports to keep up with demand.
Officials from the Sunshine State are heading to California for a shipping conference at the end of February to lobby for more business to come to Florida’s ports.
“We’re going to put ourselves front and center into the battleground,” said Jonathan Daniels, the chairman of the Florida Ports Council, last week at his “State of Seaports” address in Tallahassee.
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At the end of last month, Alabama announced plans to build a container facility in Montgomery to help move cargo along there as well. Officials claim that the project could create 2,600 jobs and help Alabama’s ports relieve the strain on the supply chain.
“What this provides for shippers is another form of transportation to cost competitively address the supply-chain costs moving products from point A to point B,” stated Judith Adams, vice president for internal and external affairs with the Alabama State Port Authority.
Additionally, South Carolina’s ports had a record year in 2021, and 2022 saw record numbers continuing. Winter weather has compounded backups at Virginia’s ports, but the backlog is beginning to clear.
“From January 21st through the 29th, we lost four out of nine days, or about 44 percent of our capacity,” Virginia Port Authority CEO Stephen Edwards told the Journal of Commerce. “We’ve made up about half of that work and I do expect to be down to single digits this time next week. This is not going to take four to six weeks.”
Here’s hoping that places like Savannah, Charleston, and Miami will continue to play a role in relieving the supply-chain crisis that has dragged on far too long.
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