Exporters Feel the Squeeze

TLR-Total Logistics Resource, a Portland, Ore., forwarder, is having a terrible time getting its customers’ export containers on Asia-bound vessels. Every voyage is full, it seems, so most shipments, even time-sensitive agricultural products, must be booked three or four weeks in advance.

“The market is opening up, but we can’t get our goods to market. It’s pathetic,” said Terri Bartle, TLR’s president.

Spurred by the weak dollar and strengthening economies overseas, Asian demand for most every category of U.S. exports is growing rapidly.

But equipment shortages and tight shipping capacity mean exports are going nowhere fast, limiting their ability to stimulate the U.S. economy and reduce the nation’s trade deficit.

Containerized exports in December surged 31 percent at Long Beach and 40 percent at Los Angeles compared to December 2008. Oakland’s exports increased 41 percent in December. Exports from all West Coast ports in November were 22 percent higher than in November 2008, according to the Pacific Maritime Association.

This is good news for exporters who can secure sufficient equipment and vessel space, but many exporters can get neither. Those left behind run the gamut from small to large exporters, and shippers of most every commodity.

“U.S. exports are now capped by the lack of export capacity,” said Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition.

Exports suffered during the first half of 2009 as the global recession cranked up, but they did not decline as much as imports, which were down almost 20 percent last year. Containerized exports to Asia were down about 2.1 percent, said Brian Conrad, executive director of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement, a discussion group of carriers in the export trades.