JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – News4Jax wants to tackle big problems impacting all of us. We call this new initiative Solutionaries. The idea is to find big-picture solutions to problems – like the supply chain crisis.
You’ve seen the logjam of container ships sitting idly offshore. The vessels are packed with items destined for store shelves – items business owners and consumer desperately need delivered.
Latasha Kaiser owns the restaurant KraVegan, which is located in a mall outside Jacksonville. Her whole business is about substituting one ingredient for another to make her dishes vegan.
“Banana blossom -- I use that for fish,” she explained. “Again, not in stock.”
And now with the supply chain shortage, her job is that much harder.
“We have one can left that I’m about (to), after this, going to find and track down banana blossom,” she said.
Right now, Kaiser can’t find the product wholesale.
“It was available when I ordered it, but by the time the truck was loaded, it was out of stock.”
Kaiser says if she can even find what she needs, she is having to pay the same price we would pay at the grocery store.
This problem goes far beyond KraVegan’s kitchen. When borders closed around the world in 2020, shipments of goods stopped.
When businesses began reopening, demand returned. Cargo ships filled with items waited to be off loaded at ports. However, there were not enough workers to unload them and not enough truckers to deliver them to stores. And, because demand has outgrown the supply, costs keep going up. “The price has tripled on many things,” said Kaiser. “Robust, organic, olive oil, we don’t want to talk about what that case looks like. I’m just going to say it: It was $28 to $32. Now it’s $55 to $65, and that is astronomically insane!”
We wanted to know if there is relief on the way, and to find out who is succeeding in relieving the supply chain issues. So, we traveled to Savannah, Georgia where they are figuring how to move forward, starting at the docks.
“Is there one thing to fix this supply chain issue?” we asked Georgia Ports Authority Executive Director Griff Lynch at the 2022 Savannah State of the Port event.
“No, there is no one thing to fix it, but what I am seeing is there are good things that are happening,” Lynch answered.
The State of the Port event is a way for the Georgia Ports Authority to show off its accomplishments and what it’s doing right. But that wasn’t always the case. In October, like the rest of the country, Savannah’s ports had up to 30 cargo ships waiting to offload at any given time.
“And how many do you have today?” we asked Lynch.
“Zero, there are zero ships at anchor today,” he answered.
The Port of Savannah is the third largest in the country, with plans to expand container capacity by 60 percent in the next three years.
For perspective, according to the Georgia Ports Authority, on Feb. 22, 2022, the number of ships waiting at U.S. ports was:
· Savannah: 0
· Houston: 11
· Oakland: 12
· New York-New Jersey: 15
· Virgina Port Authority: 15
· Pacific Northwest Ports: 18
· South Carolina Ports Authority: 34
“Part of our values is creativity and that’s asserting ourselves into the supply chain where necessary and find solutions,” said Lynch. “And one of the solutions to fixing this issue isn’t actually on the water. You’re going to have to go further in land.”
Inland, stacked like Lego’s, are six different pop-up yards owned by the Georgia Ports Authority. It’s empty land that in total, offers an additional 500,000 TEUs of annual container space.
· TEUs are how cargo ships measure space.
· A standard 20-foot shipping container is one TEU.
· Most cargo ships hold between 10,000 and 21,000 TEUs.
Which means combined, the six pop-up yards can fit as many as 50 cargo ships worth of containers.
“We need to provide our customers with more space because they have nowhere to send their cargo,” said Lynch.
He explains that between trucker shortages and a lag in ordering times, businesses aren’t always ready to pick up their shipments when they get to the port. The pop-up yards offer a temporary home for those containers – creating more space at the port for other ships to offload.
“There are decisions and things we’ve done that will be a permanent part of our makeup moving forward as a result of the challenges we’ve had,” Lynch explained.
But the executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority also says, pop-up containers alone are not going to fix a worldwide supply chain issue.
“We are still up against it. We have zero ships at anchor today but given the fact that many ports that are highly congested, customers are calling us asking if they can bring their ship to us,” he said. “So, we cannot handle 20 million TEUs, right, so we’re building to get to 7 ½ to 9 million TEUs. Every port is a finite number. The nice thing about the Georgia Ports Authority is that our expansion capability is unbelievable and unmatched. it’s just a matter of how quickly can we build it.”
Lynch adds, time is key and everyday is a race against the clock to keep ships moving and keep businesses open.