To open the "transportation arteries" for the economy, the US Government has just released an update before President Joe Biden's meeting with leaders of the large goods carriers in the country such as Walmart, FedEx and UPS to discuss joint efforts to address the global supply chain bottlenecks.
UPS and FedEx combined shipped 40 percent of American packages by volume in 2020, so their involvement will help clear up the supply chain.
The US press quoted a senior White House official as saying that, the supply chain is essentially in the hands of the private sector, so we need the private sector to step up to help solve these problems. Three of the largest goods carriers in the country, Walmart, FedEx and UPS, will make commitments towards moving to 24/7 operation, and working during off peak hours.
Carriers and stakeholders have made a commitment to staffing 24/7, and the terminal operators in the port will be responsible for booking the cargo movements in the off-hours.
In recent months, the US as well as economies around the world have become "victims" of supply chain bottlenecks because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The scarcity of goods due to supply chain disruptions has sent prices soaring, pushing inflation in the US and many European countries to their highest levels in decades. Meanwhile, exporters in Asia also suffered "double losses" because of the scarcity of containers along with shipping prices that have increased dozens of times compared to pre-Covid-19 pandemic.
The US is one of the leading countries to "rescue" the supply chain.
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai had a meeting with the Republic of Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo in Washington. Accordingly, they agreed to maintain close relationships in the global supply chain and continue with the joint efforts to accelerate the delivery of vaccines around the world. Four months ago, the White House launched Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, jointly led by the Secretaries of Commerce, Transportation, and Agriculture, with the aim to remove short-term supply chain bottlenecks.
Soren Skou, CEO of Danish shipping company AP Moller-Maersk, recently shared their expectation for global trade volume to grow 7%-8% this year compared with 2020, and stated that "Nothing in our data suggests that the situation will change this year".
Therefore, removing the supply chain bottleneck is becoming an urgent task of the government as well as transport enterprises in every country.
