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CARL AZUZ: Hi, I'm Carl Azuz, and Fridays are stuck.
Doesn't have the same ring as our usual awesome line
this time of the week.
But when it comes to the international supply
of the goods we buy, stuck is a pretty darn accurate word.
Holdups with the flow of goods might be the biggest problem
facing the world's biggest economies,
according to a CNN Business reporter.
This was all triggered more than a year and a half ago
by the COVID pandemic.
And what's remarkable is how, in some parts of the world,
supply chain conditions have gotten worse
over the past two months alone.
We've talked about the backup of the giant container
ships waiting to unload in California.
The problem here isn't the total clog,
like you might see in a sink, but more like a slow drain.
Before the COVID pandemic, these ships
would sail right into one of the two major ports here
to unload their cargo containers.
Now they're waiting an average of ten days
after they reach the area before they can get a berth in a port.
America's labor shortage is a factor.
News media have widely reported on the lack of truck drivers
needed to haul these containers away
and the lack of warehouse workers
needed to unload the trucks.
But you're about to hear from the truckers who are working,
who point to their inability to quickly drive into port,
pick up a container, and haul it out.
So more skilled longshoremen are needed at the ports themselves.
COVID-related closures and restrictions
play a part in all this, as different countries have
different rules for who can work where, and demand for goods
is incredibly high.
In the coronavirus era, Americans
have been spending less money on services and more on stuff.
So delays in getting this stuff into port, onto trucks, out
in warehouses, and in the mail means the companies that
sell these goods are running out and have
to wait on what they stock.
Kyung Lah takes us on a tour of how
these problems stretch from across the Pacific
to a taqueria in California.
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KYUNG LAH: To understand the problem on the ground.
- 542 setting up for takeoff.
KYUNG LAH: You first need to see it from the air.
STEPHEN BOR: We'll fly right over the anchorages just south
of the Port of Los Angeles, Long Beach.
KYUNG LAH: This is where the global supply
chain meets the US economy, says Coast
Guard Commander Stephen Bor.
STEPHEN BOR: It's record-breaking.
It's unprecedented.
There are more ships than there are parking spots.
We are effectively operating a cell phone waiting
lot in the Pacific Ocean.
KYUNG LAH: This bottleneck of container ships,
as far as the eye can see, carries more than half
the Made in Asia items purchased by the American consumer.
STEPHEN BOR: You're looking at all of the electronics.
You're looking at all of the home goods.
You're looking at all of the things
that people are looking for to buy this coming holiday season.
KYUNG LAH: Zero ships usually stay parked here.
But on this day, Commander Bor counts 55 in the ports and more
drifting further out in the Pacific.
While worst here, the backup is at all West Coast US ports.
What does that indicate to you about what's
happening in the supply chain?
STEPHEN BOR: You know, I think everybody can see
that things are slowing down.
KYUNG LAH: Slowing down and piling up at sea.
And at the ports of entry, this is
what happens when a global economy snaps back
after the COVID slump of 2020.
American consumers are back buying with force,
but the supply chain is struggling to catch up.
MARIO CORDERO: We need to have an Amazon
state of mind in this industry.
And by that, I mean Amazon changed everything.
KYUNG LAH: While shoppers click 24 hours a day,
factories in Asia are still stopping due to COVID.
Then in the US, national labor shortages and limited
work hours.
The Port of Long Beach is just now
experimenting with around-the-clock operations.
MARIO CORDERO: What this is is a wake up call for all of us
in this industry to realize you can't operate
with the model of yesterday.
KYUNG LAH: The goal cut the wait time for truck drivers.
The next link of the supply chain,
moving containers out of the port.
- Every day is either five or six hours in the harbor.
- You have to wait, like, six hours.
KYUNG LAH: Six hours?
- Six or eight.
RUBEN PONCE: I was in there for nine hours.
KYUNG LAH: Nine hours Ruben Ponce lost that he could
have been moving merchandise.
RUBEN PONCE: It means I'm making less money.
Yeah, because I can't do as many rounds.
KYUNG LAH: National data shows there is a truck driver
shortage, but Ponce says the problem
is even more basic than that.
RUBEN PONCE: So now the port is backed up.
Us, we're backed up.
The truckers, we're backed up.
Everyone's backed up, and it's just a big problem.
KYUNG LAH: So it's like a chain reaction?
RUBEN PONCE: Exactly, exactly.
KYUNG LAH: Delayed trucks means delays at warehouses,
like Canton Food Company in Los Angeles.
CHO KWAN: I have about eight containers out in the harbor
somewhere from China and Vietnam.
KYUNG LAH: Filled with food?
CHO KWAN: Still just waiting.
KYUNG LAH: That means for this warehouse, empty shelves
with no date to fill them.
Basic economics are at play.
Scarcity drives up prices.
So it's almost doubled in price?
CHO KWAN: I would say maybe at least 70%.
RICARDO MOSQUEDA: Once the cheese is ready.
KYUNG LAH: Prices for ingredients restaurant owner
Ricardo Mosqueda has to pay.
RICARDO MOSQUEDA: All those different products
that you had to substitute or you had to change now
are 30% more, you know, 50% more, 100% more.
KYUNG LAH: This La Taqueria brand
location operates in a renovated shipping container.
- [spanish speech]
KYUNG LAH: The supplies Mosqueda needs sit out
at sea in the same metal bins.
A cruel irony after barely keeping his restaurant
open through the pandemic.
RICARDO MOSQUEDA: We worry as far as because you don't know
what's going to happen, right?
You don't know what's next.
KYUNG LAH: How long are these shifts
going to be floating out here?
STEPHEN BOR: I really can't say how long
they're going to be like this.
I think we're all going to wait and see
how long this shakes out.
KYUNG LAH: Now, the consensus from the Coast
Guard to the economists to the very workers
on the supply chain.
This could last into next year.
So what does that mean for you?
Well, it means start your holiday shopping early.
The truck driver you heard from, he
says he's already doing his holiday shopping
because he wants to make sure that his nephews get
what they want.
CARL AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia.
Which of these Chinese dynasties ruled
the most recently during the European Renaissance?
Zhou, Han, Yuan, or Ming?
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It was China's Ming dynasty that lasted from 1368 until 1644.
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A stranded whale on a beach doesn't
sound like our usual lighter side 10 out of 10 report,
but this one's got something special.
When a 32-foot-long humpback whale recently
appeared on the coast of Argentina about 30 people
got together and took action.
They put slings underneath the whale's body,
used an excavator to help lift it,
and eventually returned the animal to the sea.
It was the second humpback whale rescued near Buenos Aires
in 48 hours.
What I love is that they didn't sit
and blubber about it or wait for some "en-dorsal-ment."
They just "bay-leaned" into their rescue efforts,
flexed some pectoral muscle, worked hard for a good
"caudal," and used a little elbow grease to oil
the gears of a stuck mammal.
Now, that's what I call keeping it "whale," y'all.
The Buckeye State is the site of today's shoutout.
We're giving a big hello to Pickerington High School
Central in Pickerington, Ohio.
I'm Carl Azuz for CNN.
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