Cargo Ships Wait Off Coast of Mexico as Supply Chain Delays Worsen

While a growing number of Los Angeles-bound cargo ships are now biding time off the coast of Mexico, the supply chain crisis progressed this week as consumers found empty shelves in stores across the U. S.

“There’s a big population [of ships off the coast of Mexico],” Kip Louttit, director of the Marine Exchange, told The Epoch Times. “If you look at the Pacific, it kind of makes sense to go down there. The weather is better the further south you go.”

The number of ships waiting to deliver goods in Los Angeles has jumped about 12 percent since October, when President Joe Biden announced the ports would be opened around-the-clock to ease congestion.

The marine exchange reported 190 ships of all types were waiting in line to dock at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports on Jan. 19. In mid-October, the number was about 170.

It also takes about two months longer to deliver goods from Asia to the Pacific Coast now than in 2019, before the pandemic, according to Flexport, a San Francisco-based freight-forwarding company.

In early January, Flexport found that westbound shipments from Asia took an average of 110 days—a 65-day increase and a new record high.

Meanwhile, consumers continued to express frustration across social media with supply shortages this week as #BareShelvesBiden trended on Twitter.

Photos of empty meat sections at a Tennessee Walmart have been shared, as well as empty shelves in Ohio, Missouri and around the country.

Retail shortages are widespread, Geoff Freeman, president and CEO Consumer Brands Association, a retail advocacy group, told the Associated Press earlier this month.

According to Freeman, typically U. S. grocery stores have 5 to 10 percent of their items ... (Read more)

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