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US President Joe Biden says he aims to keep the price of moving goods low to fight inflation
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Biden slams nine foreign shipping companies for imposing excessive rates
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US ports now have 40% fewer containers clogging the docks for long periods
President Joe Biden said his administration will continue to pursue ports upgrade, improving US port facilities and increasing their capacity so they can lower the price of moving consumer goods through the supply chain to fight inflation.
In a speech during a visit to the Port of Los Angeles on June 10, Biden also chafed at nine giant shipping companies that he didn’t name for driving up inflation by raising the cost of transporting containers from Asia by as much as 1,000%.
“There are nine major ocean liner shipping companies that ship from Asia to the United States. They form three consortia. These companies have raised their prices by as much as 1,000%. So everything coming from Asia, they get 90-some percent of it,” Biden said.
He said the foreign-owned shipping companies raised their prices while raking in US$190 billion in profit – a seven-fold increase in one year.
“The Senate passed legislation. I’m hopeful the House is going to act soon to crack down on these companies, as I’ve asked, and lower the cost,” he said.
When the administration launched in March the Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW), an initiative to pilot key freight information exchange between parts of the supply chain, Biden ordered Congress to investigate the consortia for probable antitrust violations.
READ: US gov’t unveils FLOW initiative to improve supply chain
Biden delivered his speech aboard the Battleship USS Iowa, where he noted progress on the nation’s supply chain challenges and thanked waterfront workers and terminals for their efforts in processing record volumes of cargo amid the pandemic.
The President was introduced by Sal DiConstanzo, who identified himself as a “rank-and-file member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and thanked Biden for his commitment to strengthening the role of labor at every opportunity within the economy.
The Port of Los Angeles has been the No.1 US container port for 22 consecutive years. Last year, the port facilitated US$294 billion in trade and handled a total of 10.7 million container units, the busiest calendar year in the Port’s 115-year history.
Biden said Americans already know that “Putin’s price hike is hitting America hard” with gas and food prices accounting for half of the monthly price increases since May. But he said core inflation, excluding energy and food, has declined but needed to come down faster.
“My administration is going to continue to do everything we can to lower the prices for the American people” and that “one of the key ways to fight inflation is by lowering the cost of moving goods through the supply chain,” said Biden.
“If you can’t get the material needed to build a product you’re building — whether it’s an automobile or whatever it is — it makes it difficult to be able to move, and that’s called the supply chain. That’s why I’ve been focused on ports,” he said, explaining what supply means to the layman.
He said ports around the world were congested last autumn due to COVID-related disruptions, but meetings with port operators, shipping companies, and labor to ease the bottlenecks led to 97% on-time delivery of packages to homes and shops last Christmas.
“And today, there are about 40% fewer containers clogging the docks for long periods of time than there were last November,” Biden said, drawing applause as he said May was the strongest month in the Port of Los Angeles’s history.”
He said with Congress’ passage of the Infrastructure Bill, his administration is funding major new initiatives on the docks, such as on-dock rail systems at the Port of Long Beach, port electrification to replace the power generating units that use gas, coal, and other fuels.
Recalling the trucking problem that added to the congestion, Biden said the number of commercial driving licenses issued has been doubled and apprenticeships have been created for aspiring drivers to earn while they learned, leading to record jobs for drivers.
The President also cited the appointment of General Steve Lyons, retired chief of the Transportation Command, as Supply Chain Envoy to oversee the supply chain sector.
