<Anchor> This is a
friendly economic time. Today (18th) I will be with reporter Kim Hye-min. I think we briefly shared the news that a logistical crisis is taking place in US ports a while ago, but he said that the situation is getting worse.
<Reporter>
One of the causes of the US stock market crash at that time was the 'supply chain disruption'. I explained it like this, but there is a worrying prediction that this phenomenon will not end in a short period of time and will continue until the end of the year.
First of all, looking at the US port situation, in the US, the ports of LA and Long Beach are responsible for 40% of US import logistics.
By the way, hundreds of thousands of containers have been piled up here since a few weeks ago. There are many cargo ships floating in the sea without even being able to enter the port at all because there is no place to stack more containers.
You have to wait at least 3 weeks to be able to unload. The expression 'Container-ageddon', which is a compound word of container and Armageddon, has even appeared. It means that there is chaos in the port congestion.
A similar thing is happening in the UK. The UK's largest port is called Felixstow Port.
Here too, tens of thousands of containers were piled up, and some cargo ships had to turn back because there was no more space for unloading. As a result, shipments are delayed by up to a week.
<Anchor>
Reporter Kim, why does this keep happening?
<reporter>
First of all, as the global demand for Corona has calmed down, the demand to buy things is increasing again. At the same time, in Korea, the word 'retaliatory consumption' was even mentioned.
As a result, container loading and unloading volumes from around the world have also increased, but there is a shortage of truck drivers or warehouse personnel to do loading and unloading at ports.
Then where did they go? When the COVID-19 pandemic spread, many workers were laid off at once. I'm trying to save these workers again recently, but it's not easy.
After receiving the government grant for COVID-19, I have already left in search of another job. Even if they do not have a job, they say that they do not get a job unless they are paid a high hourly wage because the government subsidy is so large.
<Anchor> Because
there is a lot of government subsidy, I am not getting a job. This is also a very ironic phenomenon. Will this amount of logistics affect Korea?
<Reporter>
Some US and UK supermarket shelves are already emptying little by little. Musk, the world's largest shipping company, predicted that the logistics crisis would continue until the end of this year.
The UK government also expects it could last from six to nine months. But there is already Black Friday next month. Christmas and the end of the year are also the times when consumption increases.
Of course, there is a high possibility that the products imported into Korea will not arrive in time. Finding Christmas presents can also be difficult.
What's even scarier than this is that the price is rising, and retailers who are concerned that the supply will be insufficient compared to the demand are already increasing the order volume and the product price is showing signs of a jump.
In the long run, when prices rise like this, inflation intensifies. There is also the possibility that interest rates will rise sooner rather than later.
In fact, the US consumer price index rose 5.4% in September compared to the same month last year. In addition, even Dollar Tree, the US version of the '1,000 won shop', has given up its $1 sales policy and has recently raised product prices.
<Anchor> If
such a logistical disruption occurs, it is a situation that can eventually lead to an increase in product prices. Is that why President Biden of the United States said that he himself came out?
<Reporter>
President Joe Biden recently held a meeting in person at the White House. Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach were operated 24 hours a day.
Retailers like Walmart and Home Depot, as well as shipping companies like FedEx and UPS, have also decided to increase their operating hours.
Among foreign companies, Samsung Electronics was the only one invited to this conference, and Samsung is also planning to increase working hours and cooperate in resolving the logistics crisis.
Some retailers have taken measures. Amazon and other companies are said to be pursuing plans to rent cargo ships directly to carry goods, and to float large cargo planes direct to China. You can imagine how urgent the situation is.
However, the root cause of the logistics crisis is the 'shortage of manpower' as mentioned above.
It is pointed out that the effectiveness of the measures introduced by the government or companies is limited because there is no large-scale recruitment of manpower.
Moreover, even if logistics in the US or UK improve, it will take more time for the broken global distribution network to be rebuilt.
Moody's, a credit rating agency, has issued a forecast that 'black clouds are coming'.