Busiest port on East Coast winds down operations ahead of looming strike that could create supply chain crisis

The Port of New York and New Jersey is preparing for a complete work stoppage by unionized dockworkers on the East Coast and the Gulf Coast who handle nearly half of the nation’s shipping cargo — creating a possible supply chain crisis that roiled the economy after the COVID pandemic.The International Longshoremen’s Association union, which represents 85,000 workers at 36 ports, has vowed to strike if it does not get a new deal before the current six-year contract expires on Sept.30 at midnight.Beth Rooney, port director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told CNBC on Thursday that the busiest port on the Eastern seaboard is beginning to wind down operations in order to avoid a pile-up of containers.Port officials are engaged in discussions about managing cargo leading up to the anticipated work stoppage, according to Rooney.“A number of ocean carriers have announced their plans in terms of embargoing export cargo coming to the East Coast from the Midwest,” said Rooney.

“So the further afield that the cargo might be coming to us from within the hinterland, the earlier that it would be embargoed,” she said.Rooney said that if there is a strike and operations cease, “the vessels would either wait in a designated area or slow steam as they did during COVID to delay their arrival.” “Once the strike is over the Coast Guard would lead the charge in an orderly flow of vessels entering the port,” she said.As of Friday, 147 vessels — carrying an estimated $34 billion in freight — were expected to arrive by Oct.

1 at ports on the East Coast and the Gulf, according to the data and analytics company Kpler.Of those, 38 were headed to the Port of NY/NJ.The union is demanding significantly higher wages and a total ban on the automation of cranes, gates and container movements that are used in the loading or loading of freight at 36 US ports.A prolonged strike would almost certainly hurt the economy.Five the nation’s 10 largest ports a...