The epic collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday is diverting shipping and trucking around one of the busiest ports on the East Coast causing delays raising expenses disrupting the the entire global supply chain.
After Dali, the container ship hit the bridge and brought it down yesterday it created havoc resulting in suspending the ship traffic entering and leaving the port of Baltimore. This disruption would require rerouting the vessels or their cargo to other ports, likely causing congestion and delays for importers, said Judah Levine, head of research for the global freight booking platform Freightos.
The Dali was the only container vessel in the port at the time of the collision but seven others had been scheduled to arrive in the Baltimore port this week, Levin said. Israel-based maritime intelligence company Windward in Tel Aviv’s CEO, Ami Daniel says, “People right now are figuring out where are they going and what are their options.”
Logistics Companies take on Baltimore accident
Logistics companies from every corner of the East Coast were urgently relaying messages back and forth to clients Tuesday on the status of their imports and exports since the collapse of Baltimore port. A massive rescue effort was underway on Tuesday morning.
Paul Brashier, the Vice President of drayage and intermodal for ITS Logistics explained that their first priority right now is engaging clients to make plans for containers that were originally routed to Baltimore that will be discharged at other ports on the Eastern Seaboard. He further says that these diverted volumes will impact the ports of New York/ New Jersey, Norfolk and the Southeast and we have to prepare trucking and transload capacity to get that freight to its intended network.
At the time of Collison, the vessel had 2 pilots from the Port of Baltimore on board. In the early hours of that day , the 10,000 container-capacity vessel Dali was on its way out to the port heading to Columbo, Sri Lanka, when it accidently collided with a bridge pillar.
American Trucking Associations spokesperson Jessica Gail says this incident would definitely have a significant and long-lasting impacts on the region apart from the obvious tragedies calling the Key Bridge and Baltimore’s port “critical components” of the nation’s infrastructure. Further Gail says that 1.3 Million trucks crossed the bridge every year so approximately 3600 a day. Trucks that carry hazardous materials would now have to make 30 miles of detours around Baltimore because they were prohibited from using the tunnels of the city, she said according to the delays and increasing fuel costs. Russell Brehm, the termoinal manager in Baltimore for Lee Transport, says timewise it’s going to hurt a lot, which trucked hazardous materials such as petroleum products and chemicals.
The accident came as global shipping had largely adjusted to disruptions from Houthi rebel attacks on vessels in the Red Sea.
A twitter user shares the actual footage few minutes before the disaster happened;
FACT :🔥
-The Horrific unfortunate Accident in which Ship collided with US' Baltimore bridge left 6 dead was termed as terrorist attack by RWs trolls having all 22 crew members from INDIA.
-Thats the reason these M@r@ns, Low IQ are so dangerous for India and Indians. pic.twitter.com/1VwTTqSJv9
— Manu🇮🇳🇮🇳 (@mshahi0024) March 27, 2024
Why is Baltimore’s Port important?
For the US retailers and manufacturers Baltimore’s port has become increasingly important seeking to diversify their supply networks and bring goods closer to customers, said Jonathan Gold, vice president of the supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation. Everybody is trying to figure out the impact of the supply chin from the loss also it was too early to tell how long shipments might be delayed, says Gold.
Ryan Petersen, CEO of the supply chain management company Flexport says Americans should expect shortages. He says that accident would have significant repercussions for ocean container shipping and East Coast trucking logistics.
