With the U.S. economy relying heavily on clearing out freight bottlenecks all the way up and down the supply chain, the White House launched a twice-monthly dashboard with key performance indicators to track progress on Wednesday.
Ships at anchor at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, cumulative container import volume, and retail inventories are among the metrics used in the dashboard, which was compiled by the Biden administration’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force.
The White House stated that it intends to publish the data until at least the end of the year.
“Our commitment to addressing bottlenecks and inefficiencies is aimed at assisting in getting goods to the families and businesses that need them as our economy recovers from the pandemic,” the White House stated in a blog post. “We will also continue to closely monitor the shift from goods to services consumption, as we anticipate that this shift will relieve pressures on the goods movement supply chain.”
Source: The White Hous
According to the White House, there were 75 container ships at anchor in San Pedro Bay waiting to berth at the two ports as of Friday, January 7th, still near-record levels. “This number is driven in part by consumer demand for goods and is also influenced by delta-related port and factory closures in Asia,” the White House stated.
However, comparing cumulative import volume reveals that more containers are moving through ports, warehouses, and into stores, according to the White House. It stated that container import volume at the two ports reached 7.7 million twenty-foot equivalent units between January and September, which was 18% higher than the previous record set during the same period in 2018.
“It’s not enough to get goods into the country; we also need to get them on shelves,” the White House said. It is tracking progress further down the supply chain by using data from both the US Census Bureau and the IRI Supply Index.
According to federal census data, inflation-adjusted retail inventories (excluding automobiles) increased between the end of August and the end of September. Retail inventories were 4% higher than a year ago at the end of September and were higher than pre-pandemic levels.
According to the most recent IRI Supply Index, the rate of keeping goods in stock at retail stores is 89 percent, which is close to the pre-pandemic level of 91 percent. According to the White House, “these higher-frequency data measures also suggest that, as recently as last week, there had been no deterioration in retail inventories since the census reported the end-of-September retail inventory numbers.”
The administration used the announcement of the new dashboard to highlight recent actions it has taken to alleviate congestion, such as pushing ports to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and a $5 billion partnership between the US Department of Transportation and California ports for expansion projects.
However, progress is slow for US exporters who have been stymied by an influx of imports at the expense of containers available for shipping to Asian markets.
Mike Durkin, testifying on behalf of the International Dairy Foods Association at a supply chain hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, said that rising transportation costs and container line fees are causing market share to shift to other countries.
“The Biden administration’s order for the ports to work 24/7 was a suggestion for the ports to work toward, but it’s not in place yet,” Durkin said, adding that with port labor negotiations in the spring and the need to hire and train people, he did not expect to see progress for another six to twelve months.
The White House stated that moving all supply chain links at the same time “doesn’t happen overnight, but the actions taken by every link in the chain are making a difference.” These actions are beginning to clear backlogs and break down the barriers that have made moving this unprecedented volume of goods difficult.”
