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Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of wtg
posted
Friends who are furniture shopping have been telling me that it can take four to six months to get a new sofa if you order something that isn't already in stock. I didn't realize it was this bad.

quote:
‘I’ve Never Seen Anything Like This’: Chaos Strikes Global Shipping

The pandemic has disrupted international trade, driving up the cost of shipping goods and adding a fresh challenge to the global economic recovery.

Off the coast of Los Angeles, more than two dozen container ships filled with exercise bikes, electronics and other highly sought imports have been idling for as long as two weeks.

In Kansas City, farmers are struggling to ship soybeans to buyers in Asia. In China, furniture destined for North America piles up on factory floors.

Around the planet, the pandemic has disrupted trade to an extraordinary degree, driving up the cost of shipping goods and adding a fresh challenge to the global economic recovery. The virus has thrown off the choreography of moving cargo from one continent to another.

At the center of the storm is the shipping container, the workhorse of globalization.

Americans stuck in their homes have set off a surge of orders from factories in China, much of it carried across the Pacific in containers — the metal boxes that move goods in towering stacks atop enormous vessels. As households in the United States have filled bedrooms with office furniture and basements with treadmills, the demand for shipping has outstripped the availability of containers in Asia, yielding shortages there just as the boxes pile up at American ports.

Containers that carried millions of masks to countries in Africa and South America early in the pandemic remain there, empty and uncollected, because shipping carriers have concentrated their vessels on their most popular routes — those linking North America and Europe to Asia.

And at ports where ships do call, bearing goods to unload, they are frequently stuck for days in floating traffic jams. The pandemic and its restrictions have limited the availability of dockworkers and truck drivers, causing delays in handling cargo from Southern California to Singapore. Every container that cannot be unloaded in one place is a container that cannot be loaded somewhere else.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Lars Mikael Jensen, head of Global Ocean Network at A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company. “All the links in the supply chain are stretched. The ships, the trucks, the warehouses.”


Sorry....couldn't find a non-paywall version of this NYT story...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/0...global-shipping.html


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When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier

 
Posts: 38222 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
twit
Beatification Candidate
Picture of kluurs
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I have a subscription to the Kyoto Journal which hasn't been delivered in months - and similarly, I've not be able to order some CDs from HMV Japan as their international carriers will not send things to the US.
 
Posts: 9625 | Registered: 22 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Minor Deity
Picture of Mary Anna
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I ordered a refrigerator for one of my rental houses in January. Fortunately, the old one had not completely gone out, but was acting weird. I can only hope that it holds out until the new one arrives.

I chose Lowe's over other options because they were promising delivery in about two weeks. Well, that date has been shoved back at least three times.

A local appliance dealer said upfront that he couldn't get anything for months. He also said that used fridges were not to be had.

If the old fridge goes out, I may have to see if I can get a dorm-sized fridge or two to carry my tenants through.


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Mary Anna Evans
http://www.maryannaevans.com
MaryAnna@ermosworld.com

 
Posts: 15565 | Location: Florida | Registered: 22 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of Steve Miller
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We’re trying to buy appliances and furniture, and are seeing very long wait times for nearly everything. If you drive down the coast you can see why - there are container ships in line waiting to be unloaded stretching southward for several miles. I’ve never seen anything like it even before Christmas.

We’ve decided to keep the existing appliances, at least for a while, and may use a few pieces of thrift store furniture until the new stuff comes in.


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Life is short. Play with your dog.

 
Posts: 35084 | Location: Hooterville, OH | Registered: 23 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
(self-titled) semi-posting lurker
Minor Deity
Picture of ShiroKuro
posted Hide Post
Yikes, just finished reading that NYT article. I had no idea!!

Also, I must have gotten crazy lucky with my treadmill order!! Among other things.


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My piano recordings at Box.Net: https://app.box.com/s/j4rgyhn72uvluemg1m6u

 
Posts: 18860 | Location: not in Japan any more | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pinta & the Santa Maria
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of Nina
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I was thinking the same thing--I just am lucky, I guess. Our washing machine bit the dust in early December, and I was able to have it replace and installed the first week in January. Not a big issue because I was in Canada for nearly 3 weeks of that time.

Thank heavens, I hate going to laundromats.
 
Posts: 35428 | Location: West: North and South! | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of CHAS
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Saw an article about the large numbers of containers that are floating around in the oceans.
The number has increased considerably over the last year.
They are a hazard to sailors and others. They float low and very hard to see.


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Several people have eaten my cooking and survived.

 
Posts: 25850 | Location: Still living at 9000 feet in the High Rockies of Colorado | Registered: 20 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of wtg
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New technology that addresses the "float low" problem:



https://www.cbsnews.com/news/h...irage-england-coast/


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When the world wearies and society ceases to satisfy, there is always the garden - Minnie Aumônier

 
Posts: 38222 | Location: Somewhere in the middle | Registered: 19 January 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of Steve Miller
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quote:
Originally posted by wtg:
New technology that addresses the "float low" problem:



https://www.cbsnews.com/news/h...irage-england-coast/


Big Grin


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Life is short. Play with your dog.

 
Posts: 35084 | Location: Hooterville, OH | Registered: 23 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Has Achieved Nirvana
Picture of Steve Miller
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We may end up going with used stuff until things settle down, or maybe permanently. It’s good for the Earth and good for the wallet.

We scored a three year old washer snd dryer for $379 - installed including hauling away the old units. ThumbsUp


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Life is short. Play with your dog.

 
Posts: 35084 | Location: Hooterville, OH | Registered: 23 April 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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