Although obviously talking their book, gCaptain has been ahead of the curve pitching port-to-port commerce up and down various countries' coastlines as alternatives to rail and road.
Brazil is one to keep an eye on as the potential is just so enormous but the argument can be made for any country with a coastline.
From gCaptain, August 11:
Ports have taken center stage during COVID-19. While countless airports, roads, and trains ground to a halt during the peak of the pandemic last year, authorities continued to wave ships into ports. This makes clear the importance of shipping but also the danger of port disruptions in the future and today the Financial Times (FT) is reporting the biggest disruption to ports since the start of container shipping 65 years ago.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted that ports are in desperate need of investment,” John Manners-Bell, chief executive at consultancy Transport Intelligence, told FT. “The entire port infrastructure system has been overwhelmed for the past year.”
According to Kuehne+Nagel 353 container ships are currently anchored outside ports around the world, more than doubling the number from earlier this year. The busiest ports, such as Los Angeles / Long Beach, are experiencing delays of 12 days or more.
During a time when next-day delivery has increased because of a pandemic-driven surge in online shopping, the logjam has caused shortages of stock and delayed deliveries, raising prices, frustrating consumers, and alarming regulators.
Adding to the problem is an aging and overburdened port system. “There were problems before the rush of cargo,” said Soren Toft, chief executive of the world’s second-largest container shipping group MSC. “Port complexes were becoming old, there were capacity restrictions and restrictions on the ability to serve the ever-growing size of ships.”....
....MUCH MORE
