![]() ![]() With the COVID pandemic leading to dramatic increases in online orders, and further associated with consumers’ desire to maintain social distancing through e-commerce, the shipping industry finds itself in a position to make record profits. Other ships arrive bearing cargo but must wait to be unloaded, due to lengthy backlogs at port facilities. In a development closer to many Americans, both physically and metaphorically, empty ships sit outside Long Beach and at other West Coast ports, waiting to receive cargo. The literature concerning logistics and shipping has experienced a dramatic revival since 2019, with the COVID-19 crisis reminding us, as the 2008 financial crisis demonstrated a decade ago, of the materiality underlying the infrastructure for much of the global economy. The “cargo ships” referenced here, most likely large container ships, represent another example of recent technological development contingent upon these earlier structures, as trade has long moved through the Straits of Malacca via other means of conveyance. ![]() The story of technological innovation through shipping containers, the focus of this piece, relies upon these earlier networks, even as the history is often written from a European or North American standpoint. Scholars such as Sunil Amrith have made the case for the latter as a site of networked trade and travel. The recent use of technologies and shipping by imperial and nation-state actors reflects the attempt to capture the activity of these earlier trade networks, like those of the Malay world and the Indian Ocean. British colonial officials anticipated precisely this style of trade between South and Southeast Asia when they selected the site in the early nineteenth century, and this fact was further reinforced with the growth of East and Southeast Asian economies after 1945. Although these types of ships can also be located at several key nodes around the world, Singapore holds a special place of significance for its positioning midway between India and China. Typically, these large vessels travel a circuit between Mumbai and Shanghai. First, an unusually large number of container ships had to wait in close proximity to Singapore, seeking contents to acquire before continuing on with their journey. Titled “ Cargo Ships Treading Water Off Singapore, Waiting for Work,” the piece referred to a set of related developments stemming from the regional effects of economic slowdown. "Overall, the voyage was delayed by two months.In early 2009, the New York Times featured an article in the midst of the global financial crisis, pointing to a recent downturn in the shipping industry. "To give you a real-life example of the kinds of challenges we're seeing, one of our dedicated charters was recently denied entry into China because a crew member tested positive for COVID, forcing the vessel to return to Indonesia and change the entire crew before continuing," Michael Witynski, Dollar Tree's CEO, said on a Thursday earnings call. This comes during one of the busiest months for US-China trade relations, as retailers buy ahead in anticipation of US holidays and China's Golden Week in October, Bloomberg reported. On Sunday the President of UPS Scott Price warned that the supply chain snags will continue into the coming year. In response to elevated transportation costs, many companies have already implemented price hikes. Last week, Judah Levine, the Head of Research at Freightos, told Insider shipping prices between the two regions have jumped 500% from this time last year. While the container ships are forced to anchor and await berth space, companies importing and exporting goods to and from Asia expect additional shipping delays and higher transportation costs. ![]()
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