Clogs in the global supply chain are unlikely to improve in the near future, according to the chief executive of Maersk, the Danish shipping company that has the most container ships in the world.
A combination of high demand for goods and a shortage of logistics labor had resulted in supply chain bottlenecks, particularly in Los Angeles, Søren Skou told CNN Business on Wednesday.
“Right now, we have close to 90 ships, lying, waiting outside Los Angeles and Long Beach to get discharged. They wait for three to four weeks, because we can’t get enough labor in the port,” he said.
“I wish I could say that things are getting better,” he said, “but right now there’s nothing in our numbers to suggest so.”
The labor shortage is not only at the ports, Skou added. “It’s also trucking. It’s in warehousing, and so on,” he said. “Hopefully, with the covid-19 restrictions lifting, and fewer and fewer people getting seriously ill,” supply chains will improve, he said.
In the latest in the spate of recent demonstrations against vaccination rules, Canadian protesters have partially blocked two major crossings on the border with the United States, including the busiest, as a show of dissent against Canada’s vaccine rules for cross-border truckers. American truckers could be planning to block roads into major cities to protest vaccine mandates, The Washington Post reported, citing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The protests come as the U.S. trucking industry, which is responsible for 70 percent of the nation’s freight, struggles with a labor shortage. The industry is 80,000 drivers short, according to the American Trucking Associations, due to factors including an aging workforce.
As global orders from consumers stuck at home rose during the pandemic, shipping companies such as Maersk have reaped huge earnings. Maersk said supply chain bottlenecks that led to higher freight rates contributed $1.5 billion to its 2020 revenue, which totaled $39.7 billion. In 2021, Maersk saw revenue jump by 55 percent to $61.8 billion.
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