Despite Eased Cargo Congestion, Larger Issues Remain Unresolved, US Port Envoy Says
The U.S. goods movement supply chain is in a “much better place” than it was in October and might be undergoing a “pre-pandemic resetting,” said Stephen Lyons, the Transportation Department’s port and supply chain envoy. Lyons, speaking during the Feb. 15 meeting of the Commerce Department’s Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness, attributed a “large degree” of the improvements to weakened demand. “When you look at shipping times, when you look at freight costs, when you look at basic confidence and reliability in systems,” he said, “that has improved dramatically relative to where we were a year ago.”
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Although congestion may have eased, Lyons said, the U.S. still needs to figure out how to prevent a “future shock.” He said he’s asking industry for its input, but he’s yet to find a company that’s “willing to invest in a level of resiliency,” which would be “very costly,” that could “anticipate a pandemic that's maybe 30 to 50 years from now.” He said it’s “unrealistic to think that the private sector equities are going to make those kinds of investments.”
But there are still “many” steps the U.S. can take to improve efficiencies in the cargo supply chain, Lyons said, including increased information sharing and transparency. Information sharing is “greatly lacking in the goods movement side of the house,” he said.