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I guess I have not understood why the port in Long Beach is the one all these ships pile into? Aren't there large ports in San Francisco/Oakland? and the entir

I guess I have not understood why the port in Long Beach is the one all these ships pile into? Aren't there large ports in San Francisco/Oakland? and the entire Puget Sound? Or are they, but the media doesn't talk about them as much? Portland's old container terminals are empty last I drove by them (although its been a while). I know the Portland terminal is limited on how large of a ship by how deep the water is dredged, but wouldn't it make more sense to utilize the smaller ships to get your highly important cargo delivered faster?

notpachet 5y ago
It's a good question without a simple clear answer. The shortest answer, which elides a lot of nuance, is that the shipping conglomerates (like so much in the current global supply chain) have been overly-optimizing for profit, at the expense of resiliency. That means consolidating business operations in fewer ports in order to drive up efficiency. Long term I definitely would not be surprised if some of the bigger shipping players recognize the need to diversify and invest in operations facilities across more ports. But that takes time and money.
- mistrial9 5y ago
  > have been overly-optimizing for profit profit, and continuity of control authority