Shippers in America, slammed by record rates and delays, have been hit with another mini black swan event, reports Spash247.com.
Railroad operator Union Pacific informed customers last Wednesday it will temporarily halt shipments of international containers from all west coast ports to its Global IV terminal in Chicago for up to a week, beginning on Sunday night.
The suspension includes containers from the California ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, and Tacoma, WA.
Other railway operators, such as BNSF Railway, are also struggling with the extreme consumer demand and COVID-19 working dislocations.
Shippers looking north of the border for solutions face other problems. Wildfires in Canada have seriously impacted rail services to and from the west coast port of Vancouver this month.
