商业供应链受阻，船只搁浅

大街上的商家现在不得不等上几个月，而不是通常的几周才能从中国收到货物, with no end in sight.

纽约(美联社)- 2019冠状病毒病疫情引发的贸易瓶颈使美国陷入困境.S. 企业焦急地等待着来自亚洲的货物——而在加利福尼亚海岸, dozens of container ships sit anchored, unable to unload their cargo.

自2020年初以来，疫情对供应链造成了严重破坏, when it forced the closure of factories throughout China. The seeds of the current problems were sown last March, 那时美国人待在家里，极大地改变了他们的购物习惯——而不是买衣服, they bought electronics, fitness equipment and home improvement products. U.S. 企业的应对之策是向重新开业的亚洲工厂提供大量订单, 当货物开始到达时，这导致了全国各地港口和货运中心的拥堵和障碍的连锁反应.

大街上的商家现在不得不等上几个月，而不是通常的几周才能从中国收到货物, and no one knows when the situation will be resolved. Owners do a lot of explaining to customers, 订购比平时更多的库存，降低他们对货物到达时间的期望.

亚历杭德罗·布拉斯(Alejandro Bras)过去能够向中国的工厂下订单，并期望在30天内收到他的产品. 现在，由于整个供应链都出现了问题，“我们要再增加两个月的时间，”他说. And that two months is “iffy” — it can take even longer.

Bras’ company, Womple Studios, sells monthly subscription boxes with educational crafts and activities for children; many of the products are custom-made, so he can’t easily find substitutes.

布拉斯发现自己把更多的时间花在了物流上，而不是产品开发上, and more time apologizing to the Oakland, California, company’s customers who expect a shipment each month. 客户们一直在理解——他们意识到疫情已经扰乱了全球航运和贸易.

近海船只的密集可能是供应链不堪重负的最显著症状. As production surged in Asia, 秋天，更多的船只开始抵达洛杉矶的港口, 长滩和其他西海岸城市的港口无法承受. 装载着多达1.4万个集装箱的船只停泊在海上，其中一些已经停留了一个多星期. At times there have been as many as 40 ships waiting; normally, there’s no more than a handful, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, a service that monitors port traffic and operations.

“这样的积压，需要几个星期才能解决. It doesn’t go away. And new ships are sailing to the U.S. 就在我们说话的时候，”PA Consulting的制造业顾问尚顿•威尔科克斯表示.

But there are choke points on land as well. It can take 8,000 trucks to haul the cargo away from a ship, says Kip Louttit, 南加州海洋交易所的执行董事. But when all those trucks hit the road, 当码头工人试图在港口卸载下一艘船时，没有足够的可用水. Freight rail traffic has also been affected.

“当你有更多的货物，你有一个效率较低的货物运输系统，”Louttit说. The pandemic itself is also slowing down the flow of goods, sidelining workers in warehouses at the ports, he says.

Put all the problems together, and when a ship gets into port, 卸货需要5到7天，而不是2到3天, says Shruti Gupta, an industrial analyst with the consulting firm RSM. “That again has consequences on truckers and rail service, because they have to wait until the port clears,” she says.

企业等待的另一个原因是对船舶空间的高需求, 在20到45英尺长的集装箱里.

“通常情况下，发货可以提前几天预订，而目前你必须提前30天预订集装箱,” says Peter Mann, CEO of Oransi, a maker of air purifiers and filters based in Raleigh, North Carolina. 在他的操作计划中，他必须考虑到发货时间比正常情况长一倍.

当曼恩在秋天开始遇到货难的时候, 他决定下更大的订单——制造货物不成问题，而且交货少意味着等待时间少. It has meant investing more money in inventory.

供应中断对小公司来说可能是一个更严重的问题，因为, unlike larger players, 例如，它们可能无法将生产转移到其他国家, 西半球的国家，他们的产品可以运往东海岸的港口. 而且大公司更有能力使用空运，因为空运比海运更贵.

由于集装箱竞争激烈，进口成本正在攀升.

“The price can be as much as five times as usual,” says Craig Wolfe, whose company, CelebriDucks, 自疫情开始以来，从中国进口橡皮鸭有问题吗.

沃尔夫的一批货在码头上停了三个星期，因为没有火车. 他预计将于2月中旬发货的另一辆车至今仍未离开中国.

“它现在应该已经到了，”Wolfe说，他的公司总部设在加利福尼亚州的Kelseyville. 他很焦虑，因为他的大部分产品都不是典型的橡皮鸭——它们是基于总统和其他名人以及流行文化趋势，比如哈利波特的书和电影. 和曼恩一样，他也下了比平时更多的订单，以确保有足够的库存.

Exporters are also feeling the impact of the bottlenecks. When containers are unloaded at the ports, 许多人被空手送回亚洲，而不是被关押并装满美国的武器.S. goods.

Isaiah Industries sells its metal roofs to Japan, “但我们在安排集装箱运送给他们方面有很大的延误. So, 我们坐在这里，有订单和产品来完成这些订单，但没有办法把它们运出去,” says Todd Miller, president of the Piqua, Ohio, company.

米勒还在等待从海外运来的原材料, 包括铺在瓦片下面的通常被称为沥青纸的薄板. 他的问题是他在和其他进口商竞争集装箱船上的空间.

“We can get it produced, 但他们需要四到六周的时间才能把它装上船,” he says.