My understanding is that virtually all container ports in North America are under volume stress. The Pacific ports more so than the Atlantic ports, but all the Atlantic ports all have their issues.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
There were some smaller container ships on the Great Lakes in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Manchester Liners was a major carrier in the market at that time.
Murphy Siding Related thought- do any container ships go to the Great Lakes?
There is an effort to move containers on the Great Lakes, but it's early in its development. This might be behind a pay wall: https://www.nny360.com/communitynews/business/container-shipping-making-waves-on-st-lawrence-great-lakes-system/article_904ae85e-241f-573c-98e6-5ca55a4c7392.html
I think the biggest question is whether any of the current container ships can reach the Great Lakes via the St Lawrence. While the Soo locks can handle the 1,000 footers, the St Lawrence locks are a bit smaller. Each lock is 233.5 metres long (766 feet), 24.4 metres wide (80 feet) and 9.1 metres deep (30 feet) over the sill.
On the Welland Canal, max boat length is 740 feet, beam is 78 feet, and draft is 26.5 feet.
Panamax container ships are 965 feet long, with a 106 foot beam and a 39.5 foot draft.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
See this report here - nice graphical representation of freight handled at all US ports in 2019:
https://www.bts.gov/newsroom/port-performance-freight-statistics-annual-report-0
Looking at the various pie charts, Florida handled far less freight than Long Beach/ LA. While maybe there is some available capacity in Florida, I doubt there is anything close to enough to make a significant dent in west coast traffic. If it was that easy, the problem would have been "solved" much earlier.
Also not shown is transload capacity - how much of that container traffic can move out by rail vs. truck. I imagine there are some ports that are better for outbound rail movements than others.
One of my know-it-all coworkers said "they" have got the container problem "fixed". "They're just going to ship all the container through Florida. Problem solved". At a meeting with a supplier last week, we were told that the cost to ship a container of doors from Malaysia to central Minnesota was $4800 last year. Now, we are being told, that cost is passing $20,000 and heading toward $30,000 as demand and supply are so far out of whack. On top of that, they are saying that the usual lead time has stretched from 8 weeks to 17+ weeks from factory to loading dock. Can container traffic be diverted that easily? Does Florida do a lot of container receving, and can they handle a lot more? Can the railroads handle an increase in container traffic from Florida to the Midwest and Upper Plains? Wouldn't something like this add a lot of expense? Related thought- do any container ships go to the Great Lakes?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
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