Crypto News: Supply Lines: Strike day two

The CEO of the Port of Long Beach said the nation's second-busiest gateway for maritime trade can absorb more cargo that's diverted away from East and Gulf coast ports, where dockworkers on Wednesday were on strike for a second day.

Currently running at about 70% capacity, Long Beach is operating fluidly and is "in a very good position to handle any continued surge that comes," Mario Cordero told Bloomberg TV. (Watch the full interview here.)

As of early Wednesday, there were 28 container ships anchored outside the four biggest Atlantic ports and Houston in the Gulf, with dozens more headed in their direction from Asia and Europe, according to Bloomberg tally.

Cordero was a Barack Obama appointee to the Federal Maritime Commission in 2011 who served as FMC chairman during a labor dispute that slowed operations at West Coast ports back in 2014-15.

Lee Klaskow, senior logistics analysts with Bloomberg Intelligence, is hosting a webinar about the dockworkers strike today at 10 a.m. New York time. Register here.

Asked for his advice to the Biden administration about whether or not Washington should intervene to stop the strike, Cordero said stakeholders in the dispute are in a "wait-and-see" mode and there's optimism for a resolution quickly without government involvement.

Meanwhile, with the union and employer group still apart on the key sticking points of wages and automation, politicians largely sided with the dockworkers and called on the carriers to withdraw any surcharges related to the strike.

Bloomberg Economics published a fresh analysis of the economic fallout, estimating a hit to GDP of as much as $3 billion a day from lost spending and production. (Read the full note on the Terminal.)

Alternate Routes

Mia Ginter, director of North American ocean shipping at C.H. Robinson Worldwide, said companies are dealing not only with the strike but the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and another strike at the Port of Montreal this week.

She said that supply chain managers are prioritizing freight based on urgency and that air cargo or West Coast diversions might be needed for businesses with lean-inventory models.

Here's what Japanese automakers are saying about the situation:

Mazda said ports in Baltimore and Jacksonville, Florida, are key for timely vehicle deliveries, and that its hoping for a swift conclusion to the strike. For now, Mazda will rely on stock at its US dealerships while negotiations continue
Honda said it prepared ahead of time by unloading deliveries before the strike
Toyota said it would continue to watch the situation, and declined to comment further
Nissan said it hasn't received word of any impact from the strike

Related Reading:

—Brendan Murray in London

Click here for more of Bloomberg.com's most-read stories about trade, supply chains and shipping.

Six-month slump | US manufacturing activity shrank in September for a sixth month, reflecting weak orders and declining employment. The Institute for Supply Management's factory gauge held at 47.2, data out Tuesday showed, extending a period of persistent softness. A reading below 50 indicates contraction.

BMW is pressing Berlin to vote against imposing significantly higher European Union tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles, joining other German carmakers that don't want to risk a spat with their most important market.
The European Commission will propose a delay of its landmark law to tackle deforestation globally, submitting to immense pressure from commodity-producing countries and industry.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer's trip to Brussels on Wednesday will be his first real foray into forging a new post-Brexit relationship with Europe, a process expected to take months, if not years amid competing priorities.
A spat between two wealthy South Korean families over the future of an $11 billion zinc empire has descended into a bitter battle for control that could hamper efforts to diversify the global supply of energy-transition metals.
Two North Carolina mining operations that produce more than three-quarters of the world's high-purity quartz, a material critical to the solar and semiconductor industries, have now been halted for almost a week due to Hurricane Helene.
Canada published a list of dozens of Chinese steel and aluminum products on which it will place a 25% tariff, starting in three weeks.

Calls from countries such as Germany and Spain to reconsider the imposition of tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles might suggest Beijing's efforts to "divide and conquer" the EU are working. Bloomberg Economics disagrees.
House Republicans are escalating pressure on the Biden-Harris administration to intervene in a major port strike, Bloomberg Government reports.
Run SPLC after an equity ticker on Bloomberg to show critical data about a company's suppliers, customers and peers.
Use the AHOY function to track global commodities trade flows.
See DSET CHOKE for a dataset to monitor shipping chokepoints.
For freight dashboards, see {BI RAIL}, {BI TRCK} and {BI SHIP} and {BI 3PLS}
Click HERE for automated stories about supply chains.
On the Bloomberg Terminal, type NH FWV for FreightWaves content.
See BNEF for BloombergNEF's analysis of clean energy, advanced transport, digital industry, innovative materials, and commodities.

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