Hawaii shippers say The lag on the West Coast has brought a major slowdown in cargo movements to Hawaii, where merchants are used to clockwork-precision deliveries.
goods are moving slowly
Port backlog maddens merchants
By Russ Lynch
rlynch@starbulletin.comAfter the ILWU went back to work, it was taking four or five days to get the labor they needed on the West Coast to work the ships; now it is more like 10 days, said a Matson Navigation Co. spokesman in San Francisco, Jeff Hull.
The turnaround time for ships, normally two days, is dragging toward two weeks, he said.
But there are still ships coming to Hawaii with freight, Hull said. Matson will have four arrivals next week, and that will shrink to two or three the following week, Hull said.
Matson updates its schedule twice a day on the Internet. See www.matson.com.
CSX Lines said it is also having delays, particularly from Los Angeles, through the Long Beach docks. "The delay that we see is between eight and nine days," said Brian Taylor, CSX vice president and general manager for Hawaii and Guam.
But the ships are moving and customers have been very understanding, Taylor said.
"The way we view this is, at the moment we have enough vessels just sitting in the queue at Long Beach to ensure we will have at least one vessel a week out of Southern California," he said.
The West Coast-Hawaii operation is "a little bit more challenging (than usual), but everyone is getting some product in," Taylor said.
CSX is posting advisory notices and schedules on its Web site, www.csxlines.com.
Pacific Maritime Association
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
