…….The immediate consequences are perhaps the most clear: all the ships in Baltimore port are trapped, said Salvatore Mercogliano, an associate professor of history at Campbell University and host of the What Is Going on With Shipping? YouTube channel.
“That mean that vessels that are in there will have to wait for the bridge to be cleared and obviously that’s going to be a long prospect,” he said, adding that a number of vessels were also waiting to access the port.
Baltimore is the ninth busiest port in the US, and the busiest for car shipments, handling at least 750,000 vehicles in 2023, according to data from the Maryland Port Administration. Motor vehicles and parts accounted for 42% of all Baltimore port imports.
General Motors (GM) and Ford have announced they will reroute affected shipments and say they are not worried about potential repercussions. GM expects “minimal impact” to its operations, while Ford’s chief financial officer has said the supply chain will probably be lengthened “a bit” – though their optimism is at odds with warnings from Buttigieg, who said on Tuesday there was “no question” the impact would be major.
Some industries could be seriously affected, while the cost in time and money of diverting shipments destined for Baltimore to other ports could have unintended consequences in other areas of trade.
The port handled foreign cargo worth $80bn in 2023, according to the governor, meaning there will be millions of dollars in lost trade and taxes for every day that shipping vessels are blocked from accessing it.
The biggest issue, according to Mercogliano, will be the export of coal. In 2023, Baltimore was the second busiest US port for coal exports, with India the single biggest importer of that coal.
Most of the coal from Baltimore makes its way to India for electricity generation, Ernie Thrasher, the CEO of the coal trading firm Xcoal Energy & Resources, told Bloomberg.
“The big question is the impact on India more than any global impact,” Thrasher said, with up to 2.5m tonnes of coal bound for India likely to be affected.……
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