With
excerpt from the Wall Street Journal
Movers these days are facing an
unexpected hurdle: There aren't enough of the big, metal shipping
containers that help form the backbone of our international moving
operations.
Finding enough of the
containers used to be a cinch, because the nation's massive hunger
for imports meant they were constantly arriving and stacking up from
Long Beach, Calif., to Long Island, N.Y. Shipping companies
typically scoured the country for anyone willing to fill outgoing
boxes. But with the slump in the value of the dollar making U.S.
goods more attractive to foreign buyers and many overseas economies
continuing to hum, the tide has shifted in recent months.
There are some places, particularly in the Midwest,
where there's a complete lack of containers," says Philip Damas,
the head of container research at Drewry Shipping Consultants in
London.
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And it's not just boxes that are in
short supply. Maersk Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of A.P. Moller-Maersk
Group, the Danish container shipping company, notes a shortage of
chassis, which are sets of wheels and frames on container-carrying
trucks. Without enough chassis to deliver containers, it doesn't matter
how many are piled up in a port, says a company spokeswoman. Yet another
problem: Many shipping lines, including Maersk, have shifted container
capacity away from the U.S., just when U.S. producers need them most.
This has meant lost orders, delays, or
a scramble for alternatives, such as placing the goods into
temporary storage or costlier air freight.
When quoting customers, we now include what the cost
will be for temporary storage in the case we can not get a container.
So far, we have not had a problem, but it has been touch and go a couple
of times.
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