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If they’re so valuable to people in East Asia right now, then people in East Asia have an incentive to take a more active role in getting them back. How much i
by OldHand2018 5y ago
If they’re so valuable to people in East Asia right now, then people in East Asia have an incentive to take a more active role in getting them back.
How much is a train ride up to the Port of Oakland? Less than $5k per rail car? Probably a lot less. So some enterprising person in Asia could organize that and get them on a ship heading back faster than their competitors, reducing their cost and gaining a competitive advantage at the same time. So why isn’t that happening?
- thephyber 5y ago“more active role” More than what? Do you have any evidence the relevant actors are not trying to source containers any way they can? Right now empty containers are 5x-10x their pre-COVID cost in Chinese ports. That’s how prices work in a market system. Perhaps there are non-market forces at work or perhaps the scale of the problem just requires more incentive before it becomes worth while to charter an expensive ship to bring containers back to China.
- ta988 5y agoHow would you load them on rail car? If there was a working railroad system connected to the docks maybe. A working railroad system would solve a lot of issues in the US. But it is impossible to get a discussion on infrastructure as it gets abused by both sides only for political reasons.
- patentatt 5y agoWait, are there not rail heads at shipping ports? As a complete layperson, I would have assumed that’s like the one thing a shipping port needs, right?
- voakbasda 5y agoIndeed, rail lines seem like they would help. But then I think of the Teamsters and Longshoreman unions, and I expect the status quo favors trucks.