To everyone who doesn't understand world economics, first let me say that 40% of wood pulp comes from South America but most of it does not come into the USA as we make most of ours as well as getting some from Canada which obviously does not go through the canal. Many of the boats or ships as you may call them do come from China to go through the canal to reach ports of Miami New York and Norfolk so you may have a very minor shortage of large screen TVs and clothing for Walmart and Target. I'd say way less than 1% of the yearly volume is being stuck right now. There are literally thousands of container ships traveling the oceans and the only shortages are containers actually in China that are available. I get emails every week from brokers looking to get my business for shipping from China and all I can say is for the last one or two years prices are up $200 or 300% for shipping rates but they're certainly way more enough business to run the shipping lines then to worry about the canal which actually has gotten expensive due to rate increases over the years so that most shippers have figured out other ways. Is actually great system in the US and Canada where containers dock on the West Coast and many times containers are shipped away a train to mid America and the East Coast as it can be faster if not more expensive. In conclusion yes there will be a few minor shortages lasting maybe one or two weeks. I would be more concerned with the ridiculous rise in the price of gasoline in the last 2 months
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