In another signal of the supply chain crisis impact on inflation, cargo containers are being targeted by thieves, causing further supply side problems for businesses that translate into higher prices for consumers.
Concerns persist that California’s tough regulations are stifling efficiency at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, leading to container losses that can be avoided, Rachel Michelin, president and CEO of the California Retailers Association (CRA), told the Northern California Record.
“You've got retailers who are trying to get their cargo out of the ports," Michelin said. "And they can’t when we don't have enough chassis to move all the containers around, you have to have the chassis in order to move the cargo.”
The theft is not limited to the cargo yard areas, thieves are targeting trains.
“They'll jump on with bolt cutters, they'll open up the containers and take merchandise out of the containers; they just steal it and we're seeing that happening more and more now,” said Michelin, who also testified at the Nov. 3 joint Legislative Select Committee Hearing on Ports and Goods Movement, chaired by Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach.
The thefts are compounding growing waits for cargo to get to port. The most recent data showed more than 90 ships still idle off the coast of Los Angeles.
Chairman O’Donnell, Assemblywoman Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, D-Winters, and many other lawmakers articulated their concerns at the hearing, which listed The Perfect Storm: California's Port Congestion and Goods Movement Crisis as its subject. O’Donnell noted that the ongoing dilemma not only affects imports but prevents the state’s own manufacturing and agriculture sectors from shipping their goods out of port.
“The backup impacts exporters as well as some agricultural products, and they’re not making it out before they go bad,” O’Donnell said at the hearing.
Assemblymember Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, called for a holistic solution approach that reevaluates regulations on the rail and trucking side of the supply chain.
“To look at what occurred over the decade or so – and what Sacramento has done and what Washington, D.C., has done to impact the supply chain,” Fong said at the hearing. “And if we can begin to remove those anchors or those barriers, I think we need to look at those solutions as soon as possible.”