PORTLAND, Oregon – More and more ships are arriving in Portland to avoid multi-day delays at ports in Long Beach and Los Angeles, California. Dozens of ships wait off the coast of California to unload their cargo.

According to experts, this is a supply chain problem created by a number of factors, including the COVID pandemic which has closed factories abroad and partly closed foreign ports, US buyers buying more goods online, as well as a nationwide labor shortage of truck drivers that take longer to move around produces docks when they arrive.

The backup is maddening for anyone trying to get this product into stores and for consumers looking for items stranded at sea.

“We live in a madhouse,” said Ion Badea, a shipping expert with Norton Lilly International Company. He specializes in handling everyone from customs and immigration to longshoremen to the name of ships that need to be offloaded. He is based in Portland but works all over the West Coast.

Badea said problems in California could turn into opportunities in Oregon.

“Portland, Everett and even San Diego are becoming a very attractive target for ad hoc calls,” he said.

Ships run similar schedules to buses stopping at multiple locations on a route before returning to the starting point. An ad hoc ship is different and can be sent directly to anywhere, like Portland.

The Port of Portland recently announced that several ad hoc vessels will deliver containers to Terminal 6.

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“Three shippers bring their products to Terminal 6 on chartered vessels. Ships started arriving in mid-August and will continue to unload 600 containers every three weeks. These are occasional ship calls and are not part of a regular service, ”said a press release from the port.

The statement described additional ships now using Portland to unload their cargo.

Since August, eight ships carrying 200 to 300 53-foot-long containers, rather than the standard 20-footer, have unloaded at Terminal 6 and will continue to do so until 2022, the statement said.

This is good news for dockers, truckers and those sorting products in distribution warehouses. It may also be good news for consumers in the Portland area who are likely to see product on store shelves or be delivered sooner than if ships were waiting off California with everyone.

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