The twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach became the most essential gateways for the American economy over the past century as the country expanded its economic reach beyond Europe and more toward Asia. But recently, you name a supply-chain issue, and the two West Coast hubs that account for almost 40% of the country’s imported goods are likely suffering from it. Ships making the two- to three-week voyage across the Pacific are forced to spend just about that much time waiting in line in southern California before they’re allowed to dock and discharge payloads of thousands of containers. Source: Bloomberg data The bottleneck means companies that hire the shipping lines to move their goods have to place orders several months in advance, pay much higher rates and often order in larger quantities than they have in the past to ensure enough inventory is on hand. The time […]