Last month, White House staff claimed that the worst of our ocean shipping crisis was behind us and that the largest bottlenecks at America’s ports were no more. Citing the improved inventories of big box stores like Walmart, some prematurely claimed victory over a problem that is still driving many small businesses into the ground.
As the president of the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD), a trade association representing smaller companies that import vital chemical ingredients into the United States, I’ve seen a different picture. In fact, our current ocean shipping crisis has gone from bad to worse. Recent data we collected found that 87% of our members have experienced stock outages, 90% are experiencing an average shipping delay of 11 days or longer, and 83% reported lost revenue due to shipping delays or the inability to book transit.
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