USA: White House acts to relieve port congestion

With an eye to ensuring the expanded hours of port operation are fruitful in addressing a backlog that had cargo carriers and container ships in long wait times offshore, the White House brought together leaders of business, unions, and ports, the US Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service said in its weekly Grain Transportation report. The AMS said those negotiation efforts have so far secured commitments from Walmart to increase its container turnover 50% over several weeks by increasing its nighttime operations and from United Parcel Service, which plans to increase its 24/7 operations, which will allow it to move 20% more containers off the ports. FedEx, in collaboration with its trucking and rail providers, plans to double nighttime container movement and Samsung said its warehousing operations will be open 24/7 for the next 90 days as the electronics and appliance giant looks to move 60% more containers out of the ports. Containerized agricultural ...