the made in asia items that come into the united states that will flow through long beach and its neighbour, the port of los angeles. so let s speak, then, to a very busy man. mario cordero is the executive director of the port of long beach. welcome to the programme up. let s dive straight into the nitty gritty. how many ships had you got at the moment and how many are out in the bay? moment and how many are out in the ba ? , ., ., . ., bay? currently, at anchor in the harbour, bay? currently, at anchor in the harbour. we bay? currently, at anchor in the harbour, we have bay? currently, at anchor in the harbour, we have 62 bay? currently, at anchor in the harbour, we have 62 vessels. i bay? currently, at anchor in the i harbour, we have 62 vessels. again, these are historic numbers. at port at the present time, together, we have right now about 28 vessels at birth in the complex here, that as you mentioned, this is the nation s largest container complex in the united states. 50
we had various lockdowns, restrictions affecting demand, and then we had a big run on storage. warehousing and on site storage facilities, open air storage facilities, open air storage facilities, all heavily overused, and now coupled with this awful driver haulage shortage it really is a perfect storm for the justice industry to deal with. irate is a perfect storm for the ustice industry to deal with. industry to deal with. we are lookinr industry to deal with. we are looking at industry to deal with. we are looking at pictures industry to deal with. we are looking at pictures of - industry to deal with. we are - looking at pictures of felixstowe. what i can see is row upon row upon row of containers, and a lot of those containers are empty. is that part of the problem? those containers are empty. is that part of the problem? yes, i will not comment specific part of the problem? yes, i will not comment specific and part of the problem? yes, i will not comment specific and
toys and ship them back, but given the huge amounts of storage pressure there has been, it has been quite challenging for the shipping companies to get those empty containers back to asia. share companies to get those empty containers back to asia. are you actually saying containers back to asia. are you actually saying that containers back to asia. are you actually saying that there - containers back to asia. are you actually saying that there are i containers back to asia. are you i actually saying that there are ships in this day and age, when we are all debating climate change, having to sail back to asia empty because on the dockside we cannot get the containers empty quickly enough? hat containers empty quickly enough? iirrt completely empty, but not perhaps as full as they might normally be, and that s an efficiency thing, because if you as i understand it low though ships up and take it would take a lot longer and that would cause further delays in getting goods back aro
manpower- manpower to do that? we have the manpower- we manpower to do that? we have the manpower. we have manpower to do that? we have the manpower. we have volunteers i manpower to do that? we have the manpower. we have volunteers to l manpower to do that? we have the i manpower. we have volunteers to move forward to have a 24/7 framework, and again, this ultimately would be and again, this ultimately would be a vision around the clock, operations, like they do in asia, and this is something i talked about even before this crisis. the 20 million containers we are moving here is not surprising stub this was the forecast back ten years. what is surprising is how it got triggered and how the surge came upon us after the first six month of 2020, which frankly from a global perspective, beach was not immune. we were challenged from what covid brought on long beach was not immune. brought on long beach was not immune. ., ., , , ., immune. your opposite number at the port of los
the global supply chain is in crisis. no matter where in the world you re watching, this is a story that is going to impact you. it is a complex, interconnected problem. the good news as we emerge from this pandemic is that demand is surging. but unlocking a global economy that was closed for months on end has never been tried before. we have changed the way we work, how we view work, which means there are gaps in the labour force, the fuel is more expensive, so is transportation. there are kinks in every link of the supply chain which has thrown the entire system off balance. you can see it very clearly in prices. take the cost of sending a single container from asia to the uk. it is now 14 times higher than it was to ship the same container before the pandemic. what once cost $1,300 is now $18,000. the average journey on the same route has doubled from 35 days to 70 days, largely due