Ship Blockage Suez Canal/Jeep Assembly Plant Closures

[Orange01z28]

Can someone explain to me why stuff from Asia goes the long way to North America?

I used to live next to Long Beach, I know tons of imports come that way, but why would something go west across the Indian Ocean, up through the Suez, across the Mediterranean, and then across the Atlantic rather than just taking a straight shot east across the Pacific?

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[Professor_Chaos]

Can someone explain to me why stuff from Asia goes the long way to North America?

I used to live next to Long Beach, I know tons of imports come that way, but why would something go west across the Indian Ocean, up through the Suez, across the Mediterranean, and then across the Atlantic rather than just taking a straight shot east across the Pacific?

My guess would be as all things... money. Load on, load off. Maximize load, specific ports to keep load 100% as comes in and out, etc... Computers control it all I'm sure so an algorithm decided it squeezed out more dimes and nickels doing x instead of y.

Pure guess though. Wouldn't be done if it costs more.

 

[Maximus Gladius]

Global delivery of orders all over the world. “Divide and conquer”may not be what every “ship” shipper can do due to size of their fleet. Sure would be an amazing documentary looking into that world.

 

[redrider]

Shouldn’t you be using your right hand. Asking for a friend. ??

Actually, no. The left hand is the sinister one and is used for wiping. Sharia law amputates the thief's right hand as it forces them to eat with the left. Next week's lesson is on easter hats and burkhas.

 

[sdtkeld]

There’s a reason there are no lefties in some parts of the world...

 

[stickshifter]

Can someone explain to me why stuff from Asia goes the long way to North America?

I used to live next to Long Beach, I know tons of imports come that way, but why would something go west across the Indian Ocean, up through the Suez, across the Mediterranean, and then across the Atlantic rather than just taking a straight shot east across the Pacific?

Like you say, a lot of container ships do sail directly across the Pacific from the east coast of China (for example) to the west coast of the U.S. Our ports on the west coast handle massive volume (Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Seattle-Tacoma are three of the five busiest ports in America). The reason that some container ships from Asia take the long sea route to the east coast of the U.S. - as opposed to delivering to the west coast and driving across the country - is the economy of scale when it comes to shipping. It is actually cheaper to sail a container ship from Asia through the Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea, and across the Atlantic into New York and other east coast locations than it is to take the relatively short trip (6,000 miles by sea) across the Pacific, and then load each container onto a train or truck and drive that container 3,000 miles across America. A single container ship can carry 20,000 containers (technically, these are called Twenty-foot Equivalent Units, or TEU), and it only takes a crew of 25 to run that ship. Distance almost becomes irrelevant when at sea because the cost of fuel is minimal when compared to the massive volume of goods being shipped. Once you drop a container onto an 18-wheeler you are now paying a single driver to move a single container (20,000 drivers compared to 25 crew), and you are burning a massive amount of fuel to move one container compared to the "fuel per container" being burned by a container ship. Of course, trains are much more efficient, but still more expensive than ships, and eventually you have to take the container off the train and put it on a truck for the final leg of the journey. Sorry if that was more info than you wanted!

P.S. It looks like the Ever Green is on the move!

 

[Orange01z28]

Like you say, a lot of container ships do sail directly across the Pacific from the east coast of China (for example) to the west coast of the U.S. Our ports on the west coast handle massive volume (Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Seattle-Tacoma are three of the five busiest ports in America). The reason that some container ships from Asia take the long sea route to the east coast of the U.S. - as opposed to delivering to the west coast and driving across the country - is the economy of scale when it comes to shipping. It is actually cheaper to sail a container ship from Asia through the Indian Ocean, the Suez Canal, the Mediterranean Sea, and across the Atlantic into New York and other east coast locations than it is to take the relatively short trip (6,000 miles by sea) across the Pacific, and then load each container onto a train or truck and drive that container 3,000 miles across America. A single container ship can carry 20,000 containers (technically, these are called Twenty-foot Equivalent Units, or TEU), and it only takes a crew of 25 to run that ship. Distance almost become irrelevant when at sea because the cost of fuel is minimal when compared to the massive volume of goods being shipped. Once you drop a container onto an 18-wheeler you are now paying a single driver to move a single container (20,000 drivers compared to 25 crew), and you are burning a massive amount of fuel to move one container compared to the "fuel per container" being burned by a container ship. Of course, trains are much more efficient, but still more expensive than ships, and eventually you have to take the container off the train and put it on a truck for the final leg of the journey. Sorry if that was more info than you wanted!

P.S. It looks like the Ever Green is on the move!

No, thank you. This is exactly the kind of explanation I was looking for

It all makes sense now

 

[Capt.Grumps1075]

Lol it's 1 ship. It isn't even a speck on the impact of an entire industry let alone 2 ( auto and tp) that and the ship in question was not US bound. I've been in the Marine Shipping industry for 27 years and have never seen one single maritime accident impact and entire industry. Not even covid slowed us down. Yes it can delay moving cargo in that particular area of operations but it's a big world and there are hundreds thousands of ships world wide

 

[Klutch]

Lol it's 1 ship. It isn't even a speck on the impact of an entire industry let alone 2 ( auto and tp) that and the ship in question was not US bound. I've been in the Marine Shipping industry for 27 years and have never seen one single maritime accident impact and entire industry. Not even covid slowed us down. Yes it can delay moving cargo in that particular area of operations but it's a big world and there are hundreds thousands of ships world wide

As you likely know, it wasn't just that one ship. The problem is that one ship was blocking the entire canal. That caused hundreds of ships to sit and wait on both sides of the canal. Now all those ships are way behind schedule. Even the ships that went around Africa will be behind schedule because takes a long time to go around The Dark Continent. Apparently, there is some kind of waterway detour around the stuck ship, but that takes longer.

Oil prices are already up because tankers were also stuck. Although the US imports very little oil from the Middle East, petroleum is a global commodity. So, if there's a problem with oil delivery overseas, oil goes up everywhere.

 

[stickshifter]

For anyone interested, here is a map of global chokepoints (narrow shipping straits like the Suez Canal). The volume of oil that moves through each chokepoint, measured in million barrels of oil per day (mbpd), is in the red circles, and the thickness of the dark blue arrows represents volume of oil being shipped by sea:

Map source: U.S. Energy Information Agency

Global oil consumption is around 100 mbpd (a little less now due to Covid), so each number corresponds to a percent of global consumption (19 mbpd through the Strait of Hormuz is roughly equivalent to 19% of daily consumption). You can see why Iran's threats against the Strait of Hormuz are taken so seriously, and why the U.S. Fifth Fleet is stationed in Bahrain (just 200 miles west of Hormuz), with the ability to project power into that strait and keep it open.

 

[redrider]

There’s a reason there are no lefties in some parts of the world...

Osama was. The Italian word for left is sinestro and Jesus was said to sit at the right hand of god. Just shows how much our world is controlled by superstition. They even made me change to right hand writing in the third grade (1965) because of it. I still do most things with the left.

 

[Capt.Grumps1075]

As you likely know, it wasn't just that one ship. The problem is that one ship was blocking the entire canal. That caused hundreds of ships to sit and wait on both sides of the canal. Now all those ships are way behind schedule. Even the ships that went around Africa will be behind schedule because takes a long time to go around The Dark Continent. Apparently, there is some kind of waterway detour around the stuck ship, but that takes longer.

Oil prices are already up because tankers were also stuck. Although the US imports very little oil from the Middle East, petroleum is a global commodity. So, if there's a problem with oil delivery overseas, oil goes up everywhere.

As I said it impacts that area of operation. I myself personally have been on dock 16 times since Saturday loading and discharging 2 30,000 barrel barges at a time. Each load is directly from a tanker that came into Houston from Saudi. That's 7200 metric tons of oil every 6 hours moved and that's 1 boat in one of the many companies operating in the Houston ship channel alone. There is a cost of the accident as every accident that closes a major waterway. But as for affecting the price of TP and closing entire automotive plants it's not likely. The BP spill and exxon valdiz had more of an impact on the price of fuels than this little incident will. Another reason for the price influx at the pump is directly related too covid. Some states have opened restrictions and that is causing people to want too travel more. That means production and transport have went up. And yes we are busier than this time last year. That means we need more people to do the job we do. And when the lowest paid person on a boat is getting 100 dollars a day ( and that's the pretty much lowest industry wide for entry level green deck personel). Major oil producers are doing the same thing. People are back too work. More work means more people more people means more hours that they have too pay them for and in the end more employees too cover work load. And trust me, oil industry people, we like our money. Lol and there's a lot of us out here. Now Don't get me wrong I'm not arguing with anyone. I'm simply stating that one ship being aground for as short a time as it's been aground is not as big an impact on the grand scheme of things as its been made out to be. Download the Shipfinder app too your phone and just see how many ships tugs and commercial transport vessel's are in the gulf of Mexico alone. It will surprise you

 

[Higher_Ground]

Yeah they've been warning about the lack of microprocessors for months now. It seems that nobody accurately predicted how COVID would affect people's habits. At first they predicted a baby boom - then realized nobody was mingling and being stuck inside with your existing family 24/7 wasn't conducive to reproduction. So they revised the forecast for fewer babies.

Likewise when things started shutting down last year manufacturers lowered their expectations... and people went crazy buying stuff instead. So they made less parts to begin with, anticipating lower demand. But hey guess what, it's actually higher than anyone expected and we're still stuck with a diminished supply chain that can't ramp up as quickly.

One of the biggest eye openers to me is just how ill prepared we are to deal with salvaging large ships. They were saying it's so big they can't even unload it outside of a port, and that dragging it off the bank could tear it apart.

It was interesting watching how they eventually dismantled the Golden Ray off of Savannah. Large ship stuck on its side and they had to cut it into pieces to remove it. - https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a35877638/golden-ray-final-voyage/

I can't begin to imagine what they'd have to do to cut that thing up.

 

[RVcruzer]

Nothing to cut up. They got it moved and traffic has resumed.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy...-ship-stuck-in-suez-canal-partially-refloated

 

[stickshifter]

Its amazing how narrow some chokepoints are. Here is the Ever Green in the Suez Canal before it was freed.

Source: ABC News

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