Editorial: The shipping industry’s problems hit Washington hard

A visit by Governor Jay Inslee last week underscored the importance of ports to Washington’s economy. But when the governor examined the port of Vancouver’s impressive status as a major importer of wind turbine blades, it was impossible not to think about the chaos facing the global shipping industry.

As National Public Radio recently reported, “It is getting harder for stores to replenish their shelves, manufacturers, automakers and construction companies to get the parts they need, and farmers to export their products. Analysts say this is a big reason consumer prices are rising. “

Beginning last year with the shutdowns caused by the pandemic, consumers turned their interests – and their dollars – to goods rather than experience. The demand for exercise bikes, electronics and home improvement supplies soared, which increased the need for imports from Asia.

There’s a reason Amazon’s net income for the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic exceeded its combined net income of 2017-19. As consumers buy goods online, many of those goods have had to be shipped from the other end of the world. Now that the world economy is awakening again, the demand has only increased and the problem exacerbated.

Tom Bellerud of The Northwest Seaport Alliance said, “We are seeing a historic increase in cargo volumes in our ports. The terminals have a hard time handling all of the cargo from these ships quickly enough. “

This has led to a kind of traffic jam at sea, with container ships waiting for a place along the west coast to unload their bounty. Shipping costs have increased and Washington’s exporters are facing delays while waiting for empty containers to return their products across the Pacific Ocean.

As the New York Times stated in March, “Around the world, the pandemic has disrupted trade extraordinarily, increased shipping costs and challenged global economic recovery. The virus has messed up the choreography of moving cargo from one continent to another. “

For Washington, considered the nation’s most trade-dependent state, the situation reverberates across the economy.

The state has 75 port districts (most do not handle container shipments) in 33 of its 39 districts, and Lori Otto Punke of the Washington Council on International Trade reports, “From the direct jobs offered by the mega-ports in Seattle and Tacoma to economic activity produced in smaller communities like Ilwaco, Chinook, Kalama and Ridgefield, the breadth and extent of the impact the state port system has on the regional economy is significant. “

In one example, Washington exported apples worth $ 637 million last year – a 13 percent decrease from the previous year. With the growing season in full swing and harvests beginning in the coming months, shipping issues could be a drag on the state’s agriculture.

Container shipping was launched in 1956 and the advent of standardized metal freighters changed the world economy. It enabled ships to carry more goods and made it easier to load and unload those ships. “Now,” writes NPR, “economists fear that the lines of these wonder boxes and the vessels that transport them are clogged.”

The clogging of this artery will be of vital importance to world trade. And with global trade, Washington’s economy is also doing for consumers and producers.

The Columbian is a family-owned newspaper based in Vancouver, Washington.