How Fruits And Nuts Are Disrupting US Car Exports

Depsite gigantic 400 meter long container ships, demand for shipping from the United States is outpacing space available on ships. The delays caused are affecting exporting vehicles is hurting other shipping companies . As a result, many car exporters are not able to get vehicles onto ships on time, resulting in delays of anywhere between 1 to 3 weeks. Because of the backlog vehicles are piling up in shipping company's yards, causing many companies to stop accepting cars at their facilities all together. Here's how West Coast Shipping has avoided delaying your cargo.

According to the ocean carrier APL, the reason why there are delays in the first place is due to unusual demand for dry nuts and fruits (DNF) overseas. Quoting APL, "export activity is usually heaviest at harvest season around September and October. However, high crop yields and growing DNF demand in Asia and Europe are resulting in a flood of container trying to leave the country". Ocean carriers expect high shipping demand to continue into April.

How is West Coast Shipping able to avoid delays? Because of our substantial shipping volume. Each year, we ship over 8,000 cars from the US overseas, making us one of the largest US car exporters. In turn, our volume allows us to negotiate favorable contracts with ocean carriers.  With the contracts in place, we are guaranteed a number of containers on each ship sailing overseas. Whether the ship is going to Europe or Australia, we have enough space set aside for our customers to get their cars out.

Another way we're avoiding delays is by shipping through other ports in the US. Shipping cars from the port of New York/New Jersey allows us to avoid any capacity limits on the West Coast. Vehicles can be collected from within the US and transported to our NJ location for export. Transit times to Europe and the Middle East are far quicker from the East Coast (12 days vs 30).

If you have vehicles stuck at other shipping companies, or your vehicles are not being accepted at their shipping facilities, contact us today. One of our account managers will work with you to get your vehicles overseas quickly.