The US government is threatening measures against international shipping companies that have recently been refusing to use empty sea containers for the export of American agricultural products. The Biden administration indicates that Washington can take action against them, but carriers dispute this.
The USDA on Friday made public a letter to shipping companies from Secretary Tom Vilsack (Agriculture) and his colleague Pete Buttigieg (Transportation) demanding that Chinese containers no longer be sent back empty. American exporters of food and agricultural products complain that they can scarcely export to Asian countries anymore because there are almost no containers available and those that are come with extremely high rates.
Asia-American trade takes place almost entirely via container shipping across the Pacific Ocean to the western ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles in California. Until last year, containers on the return journey were loaded with American export goods (rice, dairy, corn, wine, almonds, grain, pork), also in other more northern ports on the US west coast, such as Oakland and Portland.
But the demand for Chinese export goods is so great that exporters pay shipping companies extra to return immediately to China after unloading, and not waste time picking up American exports. In recent months, American exporters have therefore been bringing their products themselves to the ports of Long Beach or Los Angeles, which has caused congestion there, while quays and transshipment facilities in other ports remain empty.
Besides a vague warning about possible new measures by the Federal Maritime Commission, the two US ministers expressed sharp criticism of shipping companies such as China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), Evergreen Shipping Agency, Maersk, and Hapag-Lloyd AG.
Currently, about three-quarters of container ships leave the port of Los Angeles with empty containers.