Deal Reached For U.S. West Coast Ports
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Exhibition Name: Deal Reached For U.S. West Coast Ports
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Shipping companies and dockworkers reached a tentative labor deal late on Friday after nine months of negotiations, "settling a dispute that disrupted the flow of cargo through 29 U.S. West Coast ports and snarled trans-Pacific maritime trade with Asia," Reuters reports.

The agreement came three days after U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez arrived in San Francisco to broker a compromise.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the shippers' bargaining agent, the Pacific Maritime Association, agreed to "fully restore all port operations" starting on the evening of February 21, according to Reuters.

The White House called the deal "a huge relief" for the economy, businesses and workers.

Port officials estimate it will take six to eight weeks to clear the backlog of cargo containers on the docks and several months for freight traffic to resume a normal rhythm .

Perez told reporters that the principal sticking point involved the arbitration system for resolving workplace disputes under the contract.

The 20,000 dockworkers who staged slowdowns at ports up and down the western coast of the U.S. have been without a contract since July.


Fastener Industry Fallout
Bill Giddins, president of Continental-Aero, told FIN that his business figures show how the port slowdown affected the fastener industry.

“The average length of time from Asian ports to one of our warehouses – not just total shipping time – was 3 1/2 weeks,” Giddins told FIN. “Now it is running anywhere from six to seven-plus weeks. Certain shipments get shunted to the side and can linger even longer. We have one container outstanding since December 3, 2014.”

Not only are containers slower to arrive, but Peggy Hsieh of Brighton-Best International pointed out that “getting new containers booked in Asia is a challenge due to lack of containers going back in a timely manner.”

“Like everyone else, we are also feeling a port slowdown,” Hsieh told FIN.

Ed Werner of EZ Sockets finds shipments from Taiwan – which normally take four weeks – are now running six to eight-weeks.

“Factories are saying they are shipping,” Werner told FIN. They are promising shipments will “be on the next boat.”

EZ Sockets also is hearing from some buyers who are having trouble finding their fasteners from their regular sources, Werner added.

The slowdown began last summer, according to Beacon Fasteners national sales manager Kameron Dorsey.

“This has been an ongoing situation since the summer, but has increasingly gotten worse.”

“Different companies have employed different procurement strategies – increasing buys, rerouting to alternate ports, etc. – in anticipation, but combined with the plating situation in Taiwan plus the U.S. demand it is hard to keep inventories at proper levels.”

Plating costs jumped 37% in January, Giddins reported.

Source: Global Fastener News
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