U.S. Exporters Facing Container Shortages
Many U.S. companies seeking to export their goods are facing shortages of containers to ship them, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The shortage is threatening to limit the benefits that U.S. producers can gain from one of the few bright spots in a troubled economy, the Journal reported Thursday.
U.S. exports rose in February, even as the trade deficit rose due to more imports, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. (Click here for related story.)
Finding enough of the large, twenty-foot-equivalent containers, or TEUs, used to be easier, because surging imports brought them in to West Coast ports, the Journal said.
But with plunging U.S. dollar making American goods more attractive to foreign buyers, the tide has shifted in recent months, the paper said.
Shipping containers and the way they are being handled reflect how the U.S. interacts with the global economy, which is one reason the problem has emerged now.
Chassis to carry containers are also in short supply in some areas, the Journal said, citing Maersk Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of ocean shipping company A.P. Moller-Maersk Group.
