The Biden Administration Can't Handle the Supply Chain Mess

Our supply chain is not only a mess, the causes are systemic and deeply entrenched. The mess was decades in the making. There is no simple silver bullet that will make the mess simply go away.

But, herein, is another problem. We simply don't think they have the desire or the ability to work on a solution. We really don't think they care.

The Biden Administration didn't create causes per se but the mess did come to a head on their watch. And, like many other things, they are badly mishandling the situation. Saying "They don't seem keen on fixing it" is an understatement. They have been so slow to react that it is reasonable to assume that they don't even understand the problem.

For example, they hold a press conference and announce that they are going to allow the ports to operate 24 hours per day but fail to understand the fact that the ports are already operating about 20 hours per day. Also, the additional 4 hours won't help because they don't have space to put the containers after they are unloaded. And then don't have chassis to haul the containers out of the yard. And, then ... so on and so on for a whole list of issues the Biden administration can't grasp.

The transit time to ship goods from ports in China to ports in Los Angeles has doubled directly as a result of the delays in US ports and the shipping in the supply chain.  As a result, shipping costs have skyrocketed resulting in increased costs and reduced margins. It is also increasing inflationary pressure on the US economy.

Source: https://fbx.freightos.com/