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Comment by cgb223 | Hacker News Reader

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cgb223·

I wish the article would actually go into _what_ is causing the container shortage

Are they not manufacturing them? Prioritizing them elsewhere? Is it political?

Anyone know what’s going on?

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There's no shortage of containers per se. The problem is more complex because due to the pandemic the whole logistics line isn't functioning the way it used to. Ports are understaffed because of lockdowns, factories close down so the goods at ports can't get delivered to manufacturing, shipping carriers reduce the number of vessels at sea to avoid a drop in ocean rates so there are ships sitting at ports and no one around to move the containers where they're needed, and so on and so forth.

Well for starters, there are lines of cargo ships outside of LA, 20-30 off the coast of LA right now. Typically it would be 1-2. That’s something like 100,000 sitting idle right there. Then many of the storage facilities are also jam packed with containers too.

Apparently we’ve all gone on a spending spree during COVID so more containers are simply out there filled with crap we’ve ordered and waiting for shipment, unloading, and return to the ports.

For a start, a whole bunch of containers ended up stuck in locations where they wouldn't normally be and there's not enough return goods, and for some reason shipping companies aren't interested in carrying empty containers back on their return trips?

There's another Hackernews discussion about just that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26574077

Reply on news.ycombinator.com