Coast shipping delays increase
By Andrew Gomes
Advertiser Staff Writer
Shipping delays of goods to Hawai'i from Southern California continued to mount yesterday, with three ships from two ocean cargo carriers reporting departure delays of one to two days because of a shortage of dockworkers at ports in Los Angeles and Long Beach.
It is the biggest Hawai'i cargo delivery setback so far in a months-old labor shortage. Nonetheless, the labor situation was expected to be resolved without major disruption to the state's vital commerce channel.
Matson Navigation Co., the state's largest ocean transportation firm, said its ship scheduled to leave Los Angeles last night will be delayed by nearly two days until early tomorrow morning.
The company said longshore labor is not available to service the ship, though the delay should not recur because Matson has put additional ships into service so they can request labor earlier.
Horizon Lines, Hawai'i's other major ocean cargo carrier, said that its ship scheduled to arrive yesterday from Los Angeles won't arrive until tomorrow and that a ship scheduled to depart from Los Angeles on Saturday could be delayed by 24 to 48 hours as it waits for labor.
After that, Horizon said it should be back on schedule because it has added an extra ship to its service, bringing its Hawai'i-Mainland fleet to three ships..
Because the shipping disruption is relatively limited, there is no threat of shortages of staple items that should alarm consumers. The delays also are not expected to affect the price of goods.
Still, a two-day delay can be critical or costly for some companies relying on tight delivery schedules.
"It is important," said Kelvin Shigemura, vice president of Armstrong Produce Ltd. "We could lose two days of shelf life plus sales because of just-in-time shipping."
Shigemura said Armstrong, which uses Matson and Horizon, managed to avoid the latest delay because it has been rerouting orders through the port in Oakland, Calif., which isn't suffering from the labor shortage affecting Los Angeles.
"We learned our lesson a couple weeks ago," he said. "We're trying to work around it."
The Los Angeles/ Long Beach ports have been inundated with an unanticipated surge in cargo primarily from China since June, and dockworkers can't be hired and trained fast enough to service a backlog of ships.
To compensate for ships held up in Los Angeles, Matson yesterday activated a second ship from reserve status, bringing its Hawai'i-Mainland fleet to 10 vessels. In July, the company pulled an initial ship off its reserve roster to help alleviate delays.
The extra ships are being used to absorb the wait times, enabling Matson and Horizon to maintain twice-weekly service from Los Angeles.
Both carriers said they have made the adjustments at considerable expense, and are trying their best to deal with the delays.
"It has been several weeks getting progressively worse," said Brian Taylor, vice president and general manager for Horizon's Hawai'i and Guam division.
"We're doing what we think is the right thing, although it is an expensive proposition."
"It's definitely a situation we would have hoped would have been resolved by now, but it's beyond our control," said Jeff Hull, Matson spokesman. "We have made every effort to offset the situation by using our additional capacity."
Kevin Kelly, vice president and general manager of freight forwarder Hawaiian Ocean Transport in Long Beach, said he hasn't had any Hawai'i customers air-shipping freight because of the delay, but said his company has assigned highest priority to the loading of time-sensitive cargo.
Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8065.
