In a good overview, the Wall Street Journal reports, “The hierarchy of U.S. ports is getting shaken up. Companies across many industries are rethinking how and where they ship goods after years of relying heavily on the western U.S. as an entry point, betting that ports in the East and the South can save them time and money while reducing risk.” Below is a chart showing the shift in container volumes over the first nine months of this year. There are certainly several factors at play here, some ephemeral, some that will probably be more persistent. What is fundamentally true: diversifying nodes and channels increases resilience.
