Omicron is ripping through cargo ships, raising concerns that a surge in cases, coupled with China’s tightened quarantine requirements for vessels, could delay supply chain stabilization for the shipping industry.
Container shipping rates are creeping higher after staying mostly stable this year, a signal that supply strains remain a drag on a global economy now bracing for an energy shock and geopolitical turmoil tied to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The bottlenecked ports in Los Angeles face a narrow window between now and midyear to clear container backlogs before another import surge and union-contract talks threaten to stall progress moving record volumes of cargo through the busiest U.S. gateway for trade.
The European Union’s ethical supply chain rules are a “game changer” but must be backed by “dissuasive” sanctions, EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said.
The U.S. Transportation Department is awarding some $450 million in grants for port-related projects to bolster capacity and improve the movement of goods, senior Biden administration officials say.
The measures approved Monday are meant to cut off funding to protest leaders and to pressure trucking companies to prevent their semis from being used again in blockades.
President Biden announced the U.S. will give $35 million to MP Materials Corp. to process heavy rare earth elements in Southern California as part of a bigger push to challenge foreign dominance in a critical field.
When the U.S. last auctioned big plots of ocean to companies that wanted to build offshore wind farms a few years ago, it raked in a then-record-setting haul of $405 million. That’s set to be obliterated Wednesday, when two dozen companies compete to bid on lease areas off the coasts of New York and New Jersey as the scramble to decarbonize the nation’s electric grid heats up.