Nearly 62,000 empty shipping containers are sitting at terminals in the Port of LA. While the number of ships waiting to be unloaded is slowly getting untangled it has delayed products leaving the U.S.
According to Chuck Kunish, Michigan Agricultural Commodities Branch Manager, “They come over with electronics, unload them, and take grain products back. That’s the way it’s worked. At some times, there’s almost so many containers over here, that they’ll not quite take them back to Asia for free, but it is a backhaul, so it’s a reduced rate.”
He says that the gridlock at the ports jam up other transportation methods.
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Sen. Thune explains the importance of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act
Getting shipping containers into circulation means getting ag exports to market