[[COLD OPEN]]
ON PLUGGED IN …
RESTORING...
THE GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN…
[[SOT Gene Seroka tc 15:35- we see consuming nations really seeing a jolt to the economic system, meaning folks are buying a lot of products and bringing cargo in.]]
IN THE POST-PANDEMIC...
ENVIRONMENT…
MANUFACTURERS STRUGGLE.
THERE’S NOT ENOUGH SUPPLY
TO MEET RISING DEMAND.
[[SOT Thomas Goldsby 03:03 Our supply chains I liken to finely tuned string instruments, and when they're finely tuned they sound beautiful and people can enjoy the symphony of life, if you will. However, a little too much tension and those string starts to break 03:17 ]]
NEW ALTERNATIVES…
AND INNOVATIONS…
TO KEEP UP…
WITH DELIVERIES…
ON PLUGGED IN …
THE GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN.
[[STOP]]
[[GRETA]]
HELLO AND WELCOME...
TO PLUGGED IN.
I’M GRETA VAN SUSTEREN …
REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON, DC.
“THE AMERICAN PEOPLE…
SHOULD NEVER FACE…
SHORTAGES ON THE GOODS…
AND SERVICES…
THEY RELY ON.”
PRESIDENT BIDEN…
MADE THIS REMARK…
THIS PAST FEBRUARY…
ON THE DAY...
HE SIGNED AN EXECUTIVE ORDER.
THE ORDER IS MEANT TO ADDRESS…
A GLOBAL CHIP SHORTAGE…
IMPACTING INDUSTRIES…
RANGING FROM…
MEDICAL SUPPLIES…
TO ELECTRIC VEHICLES...
THERE IS A PARTICULAR CONCERN....
ABOUT A LACK OF SEMI-CONDUCTORS.
MANY OF THE WORLD’S CHIP MAKERS...
ARE BASED IN CHINA AND TAIWAN.
THE DELAY IS ….
IMPACTING EVERYTHING ….
FROM CARS TO COMPUTERS.
VOA’S KEVIN ENOCHS (prono: E-NICKS)
REPORTS.
[STOP]
(NARRATOR)
A year ago, we were talking about the shortage of personal protective equipment from China. The pandemic disrupted that particular supply chain and left first responders struggling to manage the influx of patients showing up in U.S. hospitals.
(NATS)
(NARRATOR)
The pandemic disrupted the supply chain in the computer world as well.
The U.S. is also reliant on Asian imports of semi-conductors and computer chips.
COVID based disruptions quickly led to shortages of inventory in all kinds of markets.
The automobile market was particularly hard hit.
(SOT - Charlie Gilchrist, Gilchrist Automotive)
“This is every dealer across the nation. I can’t tell you how many calls I’ve gotten from dealers about inventory levels.”
(NATS)
(NARRATOR)
Pandemic related shortages prompted the U.S. Congress to introduce legislation designed to invest in more semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. The so-called CHIPS Act could be finalized by Congress later this month.
((NARRATION))
And despite glitzy events like this at Apple’s California campus introducing new products and designs the chop shortage is impacting the computing world hard.
[[TAKE SOT]]
((Roger Cheng, CNET News Executive Editor clip))
((from 3:13 to 3:25))
((no chyron))
((Quote: "it's going to take a while to sort itself out months if not a year to really sort itself out, and Apple is not immune. They have the luxury of being a massive company with a lot of weight when it comes to dealing with suppliers."))
(NARRATOR)
President Biden has included upwards of $50 billion dollars in his proposed American Jobs Plans specifically for initiatives like some tthe CHIPS Act proposes.
(SOT – Senator John Cornyn, Republican)
“If we’re gonna maintain our vibrant economy, if we’re gonna compete in a very competitive world, we’re going to need to make some strategic investments in things like semiconductor technology and manufacturing.”
(NARRATOR)
Strategic investments into weak parts of the U.S. supply chain that took a pandemic to expose.
((Kevin Enochs, VOA News Washington))
[GRETA VO]
THE PORT OF LOS ANGELES...
IS ONE OF THE BUSIEST SEAPORTS
FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE
IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE.
AT LEAST NINE MILLION...
CONTAINERS MOVED....
THROUGH THE PORT LAST YEAR,
PART OF AN ESTIMATED
259 BILLION DOLLARS
IN ANNUAL TRADE.
THE PORT IS LOCATED...
IN THE SAN PEDRO BAY...
OFF THE COAST OF...
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
THE TOP IMPORTED PRODUCTS...
INCLUDE FURNITURE, CAR PARTS...
AND ELECTRONICS...
WHILE PAPER AND SOYBEANS...
ARE AMONG THE TOP EXPORTS.
SEVERAL OF THE BUSIEST...
TRADE ROUTES EXTEND...
ACROSS NORTH AND...
SOUTHEASTERN ASIA,
WITH CHINA, JAPAN...
AND VIETNAM LISTED AS...
TOP TRADING PARTNERS...
OF 2020.
[GRETA OC]
MY NEXT GUEST HAS...
MORE THAN THREE DECADES...
EXPERIENCE OVERSEEING...
SHIPPING OPERATIONS...
AND GLOBAL LOGISTICS.
GENE SEROKA HAS SERVED...
AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR...
OF THE PORT OF LOS ANGELES...
SINCE 20-14.
WE SPOKE EARLIER ABOUT...
THE LATEST CARGO SURGE...
AND THE IMPACT ON THE PORT’S...
WORKFORCE AND SUPPLY...
CHAIN PARTNERS.
[STOP]
GVS- Greta Van Susteren
GS – Gene Seroka
GS: The surge will continue. we've got 24 ships scheduled to arrive over the next four days, and including those that are sitting in anchor, we've got cargo that's working consistently to cross our docks. The Longshore men and women of the dock, workers are averaging more hours on the job than they ever have in recent memory, but that American consumer and the consumer confidence we see will continue throughout the remainder of 2021.
GVS: I read some time ago that there was a bit of a bottleneck something like, my number may be wrong 40 containerships the rows that are waiting to get into unload I don't know if that's correct or not but did you have any bottleneck like that during the pandemic?
GS: In February, you're exactly correct Greta, we had 40 container ships sitting just outside the port at anchor, waiting for space. and this is a culmination of effects. Our warehouses some 2 billion square feet of space from the shores of the Pacific out to the Mojave Desert, are overflowing with cargo. The next shipment that comes in has to wait for that warehousing space. The trucker has to wait with that container, and it backs up to the port, and beyond.
GVS: I take it, it's important to move these things quickly because you don't want you don't want to break in that chain like there's no truck to pick up the cargo. It doesn't matter if you can unload it you got no place to put it.
GS: That's right, the warehouses have to push the cargo out to the retailers, and to you and me the consuming public. The trucks have to be in motion all the time, as do the rails and our work on the docks is equally as important. What we've done in the last two months is brought that number from 40 ships, sitting in a parking lot, down to 14, and we'll continue to see few if any ships, backed up by the time the month of June comes around.
GVS: About how many containers come into that port at any given time, whether it's a week a month and i mean that they're huge containers so any any I can you give me some ballpark number?
GS: Since July through April we're averaging about 900,000 Containers per month, every month. And to give you perspective, that would be lined up end to end all the way from Los Angeles to New York and halfway back across the country, every month.
GVS: Was there any problem during the pandemic with these containers coming in the ones that were coming in, with the people were supposed to unload it, there was a work shortage perhaps because they had COVID Or they're afraid of COVID? Did you have any problems, unloading these containers?
GS: Not really But your point is well taken-- that COVID affected our workforce across the board. We here at the harbor department, the Port of Los Angeles, have about 50% of our workers still telecommuting and working from home. The other half are police officers and construction folks that have to be out in the field every day. Our longshore workforce, the dockworkers, were hit particularly hard in the fourth quarter of 2020, with respect to the Coronavirus. So we jumped into action as quickly as possible, getting testing and then ultimately vaccines for those dockworkers who are now a critical mass, are healthy and on the job. at the worst point though Greta, we probably had 5 or 6% of our 15,000 Strong workforce sick, isolating or just simply afraid to go to work.
GVS: So let me go back two yours and ask you to compare what was the likely volume two years ago pre-pandemic, then a year ago when we were in the pandemic, and now as we emerge out of the pandemic, how do you compare the volume?
GS: I think choppiness is the way to describe it. We go back to the springtime of 2018 when tariffs were introduced, between China and the United States. And we saw a rush of imports. Then an ebb, another rush followed by an ebb; in fact, by the end of 2019 our business was down about 16% in the fourth quarter.
Then flash forward to the beginning of 2020, and we saw a year that was projected to be fairly normal by all observers, until the coronavirus hit in China. And the central government decided let's shelter at home, and effectively shuttered the manufacturing industry. Our volume dropped by about 50% Five zero during the first several months of the year and was down about 20% after five months.
GVS: Alright so when it goes down let's say 20% or 50%, does it go someplace else, or is it just sort of a bottleneck?
GS: No when it goes down that far it is because you and I were not buying. We were sheltering at home. Many folks decided that it was better to work from home, we weren't necessarily purchasing at the levels that we had seen before, even though now as we look back in history, it was a relatively short period of time. But because our service sector had effectively been shuttered at that point in time, all of our money as American consumers went straight to the retail sector, to the tangible goods.
[GRETA]
EGYPT’S SUEZ CANAL...
IS CONSIDERED THE...
SHORTEST MARITIME LINK...
BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA.
NEARLY 12 PERCENT...
OF GLOBAL TRADE...
PASSES THROUGH THESE WATERS.
IN MARCH, ONE OF THE WORLD’S
BIGGEST CONTAINER SHIPS
BECAME STUCK IN THE CANAL
FOR NEARLY A WEEK,
BLOCKING HUNDREDS OF SHIPS
AND CREATING A MAJOR
SUPPLY CHAIN SLOW DOWN.
A TRAINING FACILITY IN FRANCE...
IS HOPING TO HELP MARINERS ….
AVOID A SIMILAR PREDICAMENT.
VOA’s ARASH ARABASADI
(PRONO: UH-ROSH ARAB-ASADI)
TELLS US MORE.
[[stop]]
((VAR, ON BOAT/TRAINING, PORT REVEL, FRANCE, REUTERS, 04/19))
((NARRATOR))
Class is in session at a manmade waterway in the foothills of the French Alps. Here, sailors navigate a one-twenty-fifth scale replica of a section of the Suez Canal.
The managing director of the Port Revel training facility, Francois Mayor, says the school’s design tests a captain’s skills.
((Francois Mayor, Port Revel Training Facility ((MAN, FRENCH))))
“That is in order to put trainees in very realistic conditions. We make them work in… normal conditions here, emergency situations where they lose…technical means, or they have to deal with the most varied and complex problems we can put in place for them.”
((VAR, TRAINING))
((NARRATOR))
Instructors teach sailors how to navigate the Suez in extreme weather and amid steering or engine failures. Mayor says France doesn’t get many sandstorms, but there are strong wind gusts that move ships from one side to another.
((VAR, SATELLITE IMAGES, “EVER GIVEN” BLOCKS SUEZ, REUTERS/MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES, FROM SPACE, 03/26))
((mandatory cg MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES))
((NO ARCHIVE))
((NARRATOR))
Recently, one of the world’s largest cargo ships, the Ever Given, became stuck for six days in the Suez Canal. Mayor says for teaching purposes, canals share a common theme: a waterway with little space to maneuver.
((SATELLITE IMAGE, “EVER GIVEN” BLOCKS SUEZ, REUTERS/EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY SENTINEL-2 SATELLITE IMAGE DISTRIBUTED COURTESY OF MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES, FROM SPACE, 03/26))
((mandatory cg EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY COPERNICUS SENTINEL-2 SATELLITE IMAGE DISTRIBUTED COURTESY OF MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES))
((NO ARCHIVE))
((NARRATOR))
Mayor says it’s too soon to know exactly what went wrong in the Suez, but that at Port Revel, the goal is prevention.
((Francois Mayor, Port Revel Training Facility ((MAN, FRENCH))))
“After every accident…we see new clients coming to us, because they have been convinced of the interest of our training…Because a training in Port Revel has nothing to do in terms of costs with the immobilization of a ship like the Ever Given for a day.”
((VAR, TRAININING FACILITY))
((NARRATOR))
Each day, about 12 percent of global trade passes through the Suez Canal. The stranded Ever Given daily delayed more than an estimated nine-and-a-half ((9.6)) billion dollars in trade. Mayor says with stakes that high, big shipping companies may want to consider refresher courses for their staff.
((Arash Arabasadi, VOA News))
[GRETA OC]
FROM UNEXPECTED DELAYS
TO UNPRECEDENTED VOLUME,
THE SHIPPING AND MARITIME
INDUSTRY WORKFORCE HAS
HAD TO ADAPT.
BETHANN ROONEY IS THE...
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF PORT OPERATIONS...
UNDER THE PORT AUTHORITY...
OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY.
SHE SPOKE WITH
PLUGGED IN PRODUCER
ELIZABETH CHERNEFF (PRONO: CHURN-EFF)
ABOUT THE CHALLENGES WORKERS
HAVE FACED IN MOVING
CARGO AND CRUISE PASSENGER
SHIPS IN AND OUT OF PORTS.
[TAKE SOT]
Bethann Rooney: So we have the benefit of having here what we call the council on court performance and the Council of Court performance was put in place about five years ago when actually we couldn't handle the volume that was in front of us at the time. And the council brings together senior representatives from every sector in the supply chain to come together and work collaboratively and proactively to address the challenges. So it hasn't been easy, but it has been made possible by close relationships, close collaboration. And working together to move the corridors of the customer.
Elizabeth Cherneff: we saw the effect that the supply chain can have on all of us worldwide. Back in March when of course the ever given container ship got stuck in the Suez Canal for nearly a week, it did that blockage impact operations at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
And if so, can you share a little bit about how?
Bethann Rooney: About thirty four percent of all of our cargo that is received in the Port of New York, New Jersey comes through the Suez Canal. So we did have about a dozen vessels that were. Delayed because of the blockage of the Suez Canal and just about half of them decided to wait it out and the other half decided to go around the Cape and around Africa. So what it meant was delays in receiving those ships. But I don't think, at least here in the New York New Jersey area, folks recognized the impact of that vessel as much as they recognized the impact of global shutdown of production when we were only able to get toilet paper and paper towels last March and last April.
Elizabeth Cherneff: We're of course, over a year into the pandemic kind of on the upswing with vaccinations and progress, we see across industries, businesses that have been trying to adapt to this new reality and they will probably face challenges that outlast the pandemic in the future. What are some of the strategies that the Port Authority might put in place to handle the workforce and the workflow going forward?
Bethann Rooney: In the last 14 months, the port has been up and operating the entire time and the workforce has already adapted and the workforce was quick to adapt. And so the workforce with social distancing before social distancing was the terminology for all of us. The workforce had put in cleaning protocols and spacing protocols for sharing equipment again before the CDC had come out with any guidance. I think what what the pandemic has taught all of us is with three. Guards do being able to have supplies or materials and goods on hand, so a lot of what we're seeing today in those very steep surges of cargo are manufacturers that are replenishing their stock and also preparing for a just in case. So just in case there is another global shutdown, manufacturers have been pushing more and more products into the United States so that it's available to us just in case.
[GRETA]
IN FEBRUARY, THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION...
ORDERED A REVIEW OF CRITICAL...
U.S SUPPLY CHAINS...
AFTER COVID LOCKDOWNS...
DISRUPTED MANY VITAL...
PRODUCTION NETWORKS.
VOA’s ARASH ARABASADI...
(PRONO: UH-ROSH ARAB-ASADI)
REPORTS THOSE DISRUPTIONS...
LED TO CREATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING...
FOR ORGANIZATIONS...
DELIVERING LIFESAVING AID.
[STOP]
((NARRATOR))
Ndeye Yacine Dieng walks in the footsteps of her foremothers.
Like generations of Senegalese women before her, Dieng dries, smokes, and salts fermented fish caught by the men in her community.
But then the pandemic came. Many men stopped fishing. When women found fish, they did not have buyers. Markets closed. Borders followed. The supply chain snapped.
((Ndeye Yacine Dieng, Fish Processor ((WOMAN, FRENCH))))
“COVID has changed our work and our life… Since there is COVID, we live in fear. We are afraid to go far and be affected by COVID-19. It has caused a very, very, very big impact on our local community.”
((NARRATOR))
Dieng’s story is one of supply chains. While her local economy suffers, so too do the economies up and down the chain. The markets. The mariners. All of the people who make their livings through commerce and trade.
The issue also hits home with those working in global health.
Gashaw Shiferaw ((gah-SHA-ow SHE-fehr-ow)) is senior technical advisor at the nonprofit Management Sciences for Health, or MSH. The organization works with governments in more than 40 mostly low-income countries to provide supply chain solutions to their health programs. Success, he says, is all about getting the right medicines to the right places.
((Gashaw Shiferaw, Management Sciences for Health))
((mandatory SKYPE))
“You need products to be successful to have a successful health program implementation. So, to get those products, you need to have a strong system, and that system is a supply chain.”
((NARRATOR))
These chains are only as strong as their weakest link, and this past year put weak links to the test.
((Gashaw Shiferaw, Management Sciences for Health))
((mandatory SKYPE))
“COVID is a great lesson, which is a disaster. We looked at, last year, when there is global shortage everywhere, including the United States. That was a panic where the regular supply chain system that had been working, we need to rethink.”
((NARRATOR))
Shiferaw says MSH worked with the government of the Philippines to develop a data collection app that shows the number of resources and areas in need to keep the supply chains moving. He credits years of work on supply chain infrastructure.
((Gashaw Shiferaw, Management Sciences for Health))
((mandatory SKYPE))
“For the past 10-15 years they brought the supply chain as part of the whole comprehensive strategy, so they start to give attention. Governments start(ed) giving attention to the supply chain.”
((NARRATOR))
And while he praises governments for embracing supply chains, he says more buy-in from the private sector and a stronger sales pitch from governments is needed. Shiferaw says, it’s essential to consider all of the elements that go into even a single dose of medicine.
((Gashaw Shiferaw, Management Sciences for Health))
((mandatory SKYPE)
“You need ((a)) warehouse. You need syringes. You need vials. And you need to have a waste management system, and you need to have even reverse logistics… It’s mindboggling.”
((VAR, VACCINE PRODUCTION, PUNE, INDIA, REUTERS, 05/18/2020))
((NARRATOR))
Ultimately, Shiferaw says he’s optimistic that global health supply chains are bouncing forward – not back – after the year of the pandemic.
(( Arash Arabasadi, VOA News))
[GRETA]
AS COUNTRIES AROUND THE GLOBE …
CONTINUE THE PROCESS...
OF LOOSENING RESTRICTIONS...
AND RE-OPENING THEIR …
COMMUNITIES...
SUPPLY COMPANIES…
ARE SEARCHING…
FOR STRATEGIES…
TO BOOST THEIR RECOVERY.
CREATING SUPPLY CHAINS...
THAT ARE AGILE AND RESILIENT...
WILL HELP SUPPLIERS…
LOOKING FOR WAYS TO MEET ...
CONSUMER DEMAND...
IN THE POST-COVID WORLD.
THOMAS GOLDSBY...
IS A PROFESSOR…
OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
AND LOGISTICS...
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE.
WE SPOKE ABOUT …
SUPPLY CHAINS …
AND THE PANDEMIC…
ECONOMIC RECOVERY.
[STOP]
TG = Thomas Goldsby
GVS = Greta Van Susteren
TG - COVID has had a demonstrative effect on virtually all supply chains. For one thing very few supply chains are wholly domestic, and that means that we rely upon sources from all over the world to provide us with inputs and ingredients to go into all kinds of products and services, and so I tell my students that unless you are making an apple pie or Tennessee whiskey, you're going to be relying extensively on global supply chains, and during the pandemic, most companies didn't really realize that they have suppliers and that suppliers that even though they're immediate term suppliers might be nearby in the same region, those suppliers probably rely on others in varying disparate parts of the world. And as a result, a very different nature by which this pandemic has affected different parts of the world. Some parts have been very much hampered, and others have been able to persevere, but it has slowed its supply chains down near and far throughout the world. Our supply chains I liken to finely tuned string instruments, and when they're finely tuned, they sound beautiful and people can enjoy the symphony of life, if you will. However, a little too much tension and those string starts to break and that's, that's what happened our supply chains they have very narrow tolerances for disruption, and of course we've now witnessed a disruption on the part of the pandemic and so it's taken a considerable amount of time to identify root causes of problems and try to remedy them.
GVS - People think now a lot of focus on supply chain because we, we've seen so much to the problems associated with COVID, but we can also have supply chain problems for instance we all saw in March that that, that container ship in the Suez Canal got stopped and blocked all those container ships, And that was disruptive since that's such a short route from Asia to Europe. So I mean, are we ready for that type of, or even a bridge breaking like in Tennessee your home state. How are we ready for those disruptions?
TG - Well, to varying degrees. Some companies have been quite progressive and studying the risks and vulnerabilities present their supply chains for quite some time and created those options or alternatives that allow them to navigate, or pivot safely around those circumstances and other companies have been left quite flat footed and I think that this pandemic has exposed those vulnerabilities and, as you point out a whole host of other factors introduce themselves every day in the highways and byways and and canals that we rely upon to transport goods and services and so it's wise to be thinking about those alternative courses of action before we have to actually call upon them.
GVS - And I suppose, natural disasters tornadoes, hurricanes, even climate issues could have an impact on supply chain?
TG - Absolutely all the above. I've been involved in supply chain risk management efforts for more than a decade and we've done projects with for profit companies as well as government agencies, and we sit in a room and we wax philosophic about all the things that could go wrong in a business or supply chain, and then we get approached the supply chain partners themselves the companies we ask them what do you from where you're sitting, what do you can you imagine going wrong, and the list just grows exponentially. It's literally 1000s of points of defect that could introduce themselves at any point in the sourcing making a distribution of products and there is no such thing as an ironclad supply chain, but we need to create options that offer an alternative path.
GVS - Is there some issue of supply chain, and the risk that keeps you up at night is there something that you know that we haven't talked about or people are talking about, that we really need to focus on?
TG - Well, I think as soon as things settle down a little bit right now everything's focused on getting products to consumers and doing so at a reasonable price, and I think that attention is going to turn pretty soon back to the environmental and societal costs that we incur in making those products and services available. As one case in point, The European Union is set to take on issues of diligence due diligence and supply chains and I expect that to make quite a bit of news this summer as they think about holding corporate executives criminally liable for doing business in such unsavory parts of the world, for instance, using conflict minerals, child labor force labor, and I think that those issues are going to come back to the forefront once things settle down a little bit but those are the things that keep me up.
[GRETA]
EFFORTS TO KEEP COVID-19 AT BAY...
HAVE ALSO CREATED...
A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS AT SEA.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF MARINERS...
AND THEIR SHIPS FULL OF CARGO...
HAVE BEEN STRANDED AT SEA FOR MONTHS,
THREATENING THE GLOBAL...
SUPPLY CHAIN.
VOA’S HENRY RIDGWELL...
REPORTS ...
FROM LONDON
[STOP]
((VIDEO: REUTERS FOOTAGE OF LPG TANKER))
((NARRATOR))
((cf. mandatory courtesy: ‘CAPTAIN RITESH MEHRA’))
Ritesh Mehra signed up for a four-month contract as captain of a liquid gas tanker in July last year. But he and his crew became stuck on the ship. Coronavirus travel bans meant they were unable to disembark – and other crew unable to travel to take their place.
((Ritesh Mehra, Captain, LPG Carrier (in English) ))
“The part of not being able to go back home in time, and the thought of being chained to this particular place, and in a way you can also say (it is like a) jail, it is bearing on the crew now. They are thinking more about it than the actual job at hand.”
((VIDEO: REUTERS FOOTAGE OF MERCHANT VESSELS AT SEA))
((NARRATOR))
Mehra eventually returned home to India in April.
There are an estimated 1.6 million seafarers worldwide. In normal times they work four to six month contracts before crews are rotated. But global travel restrictions made those rotations increasingly difficult, according to Guy Platten of the International Chamber of Shipping.
((Guy Platten, Secretary General, International Chamber of Shipping))
((cf. mandatory Skype logo))
“By the autumn we had well over 400-thousand who were far beyond their original contract tour lengths, and some of them had been on board for well over a year, up to 18 months.”
((NARRATOR))
It’s estimated that some 200-thousand seafarers are still stranded. India provides tens of thousands of the world’s seafarers – and with the surge in cases there, some major ports are banning sailors that have travelled to India, exacerbating the crew shortages.
((Guy Platten, Secretary General, International Chamber of Shipping))
((cf. mandatory Skype logo))
“What we’re really afraid of now is that just as we were starting to make progress, with the new variants it’s starting to get worse again. And, of course, with (the) idea of some sort of vaccine passport being introduced by countries as they come out of COVID, it’s just going to go back to square one again.”
((VIDEO: REUTERS FOOTAGE OF MILLER GIVING SUPPLIES TO STRANDED CREWS))
((NARRATOR))
In the waters off Hong Kong, dozens of ships lie at anchor, their crews unable to come ashore because of the pandemic. Reverend Stephen Miller of the local Seafarers’ Mission runs a supply launch that delivers goods such as mobile phone SIM cards and snacks to the crewmembers on board. He fears for their mental health.
((Rev. Stephen Miller, Hong Kong Mission to Seafarers))
“You can just imagine it for yourself, you've been planning to go home, you've been planning do things with your family, or maybe see a young child for the first time in many, many months, and then it's taken away from you. So that obviously leads to sadness, which can lead to depression.”
((VIDEO: REUTERS FOOTAGE OF MERCHANT VESSELS AT SEA, CREWS))
((NARRATOR))
Several shipping firms, trade bodies and maritime labor organizations have signed the ‘Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing and Crew Change’. It calls for all nations to recognize seafarers as key workers, allow them to travel and offer them priority vaccines.
Chief officer Karynn Marshall spoke to VOA on her way back home to Texas in April, after being stuck at sea for several months.
((Karynn Marshall, Chief Officer))
“Merchant mariners should definitely be priorities when it comes to getting a vaccine. And the fact that we’re not is insane to me. I think companies should work on making their employees, giving the vaccine for their employees so that we can start getting back to a normal crew change, normal rotations, we can all go back to our families.”
((VIDEO: REUTERS/AFP FOOTAGE OF MERCHANT VESSELS AT SEA, CREWS))
((NARRATOR))
The signatories to the Neptune Declaration say seafarers will play a vital role in maintaining supply chains required to roll out global vaccination programs – and all countries must recognize them as key workers.
((Henry Ridgwell, for VOA News, London.))
[[GRETA OC GOODBYE]]
THAT’S ALL THE TIME …
WE HAVE FOR NOW.
THANKS TO MY GUESTS …
PORT OF LOS ANGELES…
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR…
GENE SEROKA…
BETHANN ROONEY...
DEPUTY PORT DIRECTOR...
OF THE NEW YORK/ NEW JERSEY...
PORT AUTHORITY…
AND THOMAS GOLDSBY…
SUPPLY CHAIN EXPERT...
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE.
STAY UP TO DATE …
ON THE LATEST NEWS …
AT VOANEWS.COM.
AND FOLLOW ME …
ON TWITTER …
AT GRETA.
THANK YOU FOR BEING …
PLUGGED IN.
[STOP]
ON PLUGGED IN …
RESTORING...
THE GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN…
[[SOT Gene Seroka tc 15:35- we see consuming nations really seeing a jolt to the economic system, meaning folks are buying a lot of products and bringing cargo in.]]
IN THE POST-PANDEMIC...
ENVIRONMENT…
MANUFACTURERS STRUGGLE.
THERE’S NOT ENOUGH SUPPLY
TO MEET RISING DEMAND.
[[SOT Thomas Goldsby 03:03 Our supply chains I liken to finely tuned string instruments, and when they're finely tuned they sound beautiful and people can enjoy the symphony of life, if you will. However, a little too much tension and those string starts to break 03:17 ]]
NEW ALTERNATIVES…
AND INNOVATIONS…
TO KEEP UP…
WITH DELIVERIES…
ON PLUGGED IN …
THE GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN.
[[STOP]]
[[GRETA]]
HELLO AND WELCOME...
TO PLUGGED IN.
I’M GRETA VAN SUSTEREN …
REPORTING FROM WASHINGTON, DC.
“THE AMERICAN PEOPLE…
SHOULD NEVER FACE…
SHORTAGES ON THE GOODS…
AND SERVICES…
THEY RELY ON.”
PRESIDENT BIDEN…
MADE THIS REMARK…
THIS PAST FEBRUARY…
ON THE DAY...
HE SIGNED AN EXECUTIVE ORDER.
THE ORDER IS MEANT TO ADDRESS…
A GLOBAL CHIP SHORTAGE…
IMPACTING INDUSTRIES…
RANGING FROM…
MEDICAL SUPPLIES…
TO ELECTRIC VEHICLES...
THERE IS A PARTICULAR CONCERN....
ABOUT A LACK OF SEMI-CONDUCTORS.
MANY OF THE WORLD’S CHIP MAKERS...
ARE BASED IN CHINA AND TAIWAN.
THE DELAY IS ….
IMPACTING EVERYTHING ….
FROM CARS TO COMPUTERS.
VOA’S KEVIN ENOCHS (prono: E-NICKS)
REPORTS.
[STOP]
(NARRATOR)
A year ago, we were talking about the shortage of personal protective equipment from China. The pandemic disrupted that particular supply chain and left first responders struggling to manage the influx of patients showing up in U.S. hospitals.
(NATS)
(NARRATOR)
The pandemic disrupted the supply chain in the computer world as well.
The U.S. is also reliant on Asian imports of semi-conductors and computer chips.
COVID based disruptions quickly led to shortages of inventory in all kinds of markets.
The automobile market was particularly hard hit.
(SOT - Charlie Gilchrist, Gilchrist Automotive)
“This is every dealer across the nation. I can’t tell you how many calls I’ve gotten from dealers about inventory levels.”
(NATS)
(NARRATOR)
Pandemic related shortages prompted the U.S. Congress to introduce legislation designed to invest in more semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S. The so-called CHIPS Act could be finalized by Congress later this month.
((NARRATION))
And despite glitzy events like this at Apple’s California campus introducing new products and designs the chop shortage is impacting the computing world hard.
[[TAKE SOT]]
((Roger Cheng, CNET News Executive Editor clip))
((from 3:13 to 3:25))
((no chyron))
((Quote: "it's going to take a while to sort itself out months if not a year to really sort itself out, and Apple is not immune. They have the luxury of being a massive company with a lot of weight when it comes to dealing with suppliers."))
(NARRATOR)
President Biden has included upwards of $50 billion dollars in his proposed American Jobs Plans specifically for initiatives like some tthe CHIPS Act proposes.
(SOT – Senator John Cornyn, Republican)
“If we’re gonna maintain our vibrant economy, if we’re gonna compete in a very competitive world, we’re going to need to make some strategic investments in things like semiconductor technology and manufacturing.”
(NARRATOR)
Strategic investments into weak parts of the U.S. supply chain that took a pandemic to expose.
((Kevin Enochs, VOA News Washington))
[GRETA VO]
THE PORT OF LOS ANGELES...
IS ONE OF THE BUSIEST SEAPORTS
FOR INTERNATIONAL TRADE
IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE.
AT LEAST NINE MILLION...
CONTAINERS MOVED....
THROUGH THE PORT LAST YEAR,
PART OF AN ESTIMATED
259 BILLION DOLLARS
IN ANNUAL TRADE.
THE PORT IS LOCATED...
IN THE SAN PEDRO BAY...
OFF THE COAST OF...
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
THE TOP IMPORTED PRODUCTS...
INCLUDE FURNITURE, CAR PARTS...
AND ELECTRONICS...
WHILE PAPER AND SOYBEANS...
ARE AMONG THE TOP EXPORTS.
SEVERAL OF THE BUSIEST...
TRADE ROUTES EXTEND...
ACROSS NORTH AND...
SOUTHEASTERN ASIA,
WITH CHINA, JAPAN...
AND VIETNAM LISTED AS...
TOP TRADING PARTNERS...
OF 2020.
[GRETA OC]
MY NEXT GUEST HAS...
MORE THAN THREE DECADES...
EXPERIENCE OVERSEEING...
SHIPPING OPERATIONS...
AND GLOBAL LOGISTICS.
GENE SEROKA HAS SERVED...
AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR...
OF THE PORT OF LOS ANGELES...
SINCE 20-14.
WE SPOKE EARLIER ABOUT...
THE LATEST CARGO SURGE...
AND THE IMPACT ON THE PORT’S...
WORKFORCE AND SUPPLY...
CHAIN PARTNERS.
[STOP]
GVS- Greta Van Susteren
GS – Gene Seroka
GS: The surge will continue. we've got 24 ships scheduled to arrive over the next four days, and including those that are sitting in anchor, we've got cargo that's working consistently to cross our docks. The Longshore men and women of the dock, workers are averaging more hours on the job than they ever have in recent memory, but that American consumer and the consumer confidence we see will continue throughout the remainder of 2021.
GVS: I read some time ago that there was a bit of a bottleneck something like, my number may be wrong 40 containerships the rows that are waiting to get into unload I don't know if that's correct or not but did you have any bottleneck like that during the pandemic?
GS: In February, you're exactly correct Greta, we had 40 container ships sitting just outside the port at anchor, waiting for space. and this is a culmination of effects. Our warehouses some 2 billion square feet of space from the shores of the Pacific out to the Mojave Desert, are overflowing with cargo. The next shipment that comes in has to wait for that warehousing space. The trucker has to wait with that container, and it backs up to the port, and beyond.
GVS: I take it, it's important to move these things quickly because you don't want you don't want to break in that chain like there's no truck to pick up the cargo. It doesn't matter if you can unload it you got no place to put it.
GS: That's right, the warehouses have to push the cargo out to the retailers, and to you and me the consuming public. The trucks have to be in motion all the time, as do the rails and our work on the docks is equally as important. What we've done in the last two months is brought that number from 40 ships, sitting in a parking lot, down to 14, and we'll continue to see few if any ships, backed up by the time the month of June comes around.
GVS: About how many containers come into that port at any given time, whether it's a week a month and i mean that they're huge containers so any any I can you give me some ballpark number?
GS: Since July through April we're averaging about 900,000 Containers per month, every month. And to give you perspective, that would be lined up end to end all the way from Los Angeles to New York and halfway back across the country, every month.
GVS: Was there any problem during the pandemic with these containers coming in the ones that were coming in, with the people were supposed to unload it, there was a work shortage perhaps because they had COVID Or they're afraid of COVID? Did you have any problems, unloading these containers?
GS: Not really But your point is well taken-- that COVID affected our workforce across the board. We here at the harbor department, the Port of Los Angeles, have about 50% of our workers still telecommuting and working from home. The other half are police officers and construction folks that have to be out in the field every day. Our longshore workforce, the dockworkers, were hit particularly hard in the fourth quarter of 2020, with respect to the Coronavirus. So we jumped into action as quickly as possible, getting testing and then ultimately vaccines for those dockworkers who are now a critical mass, are healthy and on the job. at the worst point though Greta, we probably had 5 or 6% of our 15,000 Strong workforce sick, isolating or just simply afraid to go to work.
GVS: So let me go back two yours and ask you to compare what was the likely volume two years ago pre-pandemic, then a year ago when we were in the pandemic, and now as we emerge out of the pandemic, how do you compare the volume?
GS: I think choppiness is the way to describe it. We go back to the springtime of 2018 when tariffs were introduced, between China and the United States. And we saw a rush of imports. Then an ebb, another rush followed by an ebb; in fact, by the end of 2019 our business was down about 16% in the fourth quarter.
Then flash forward to the beginning of 2020, and we saw a year that was projected to be fairly normal by all observers, until the coronavirus hit in China. And the central government decided let's shelter at home, and effectively shuttered the manufacturing industry. Our volume dropped by about 50% Five zero during the first several months of the year and was down about 20% after five months.
GVS: Alright so when it goes down let's say 20% or 50%, does it go someplace else, or is it just sort of a bottleneck?
GS: No when it goes down that far it is because you and I were not buying. We were sheltering at home. Many folks decided that it was better to work from home, we weren't necessarily purchasing at the levels that we had seen before, even though now as we look back in history, it was a relatively short period of time. But because our service sector had effectively been shuttered at that point in time, all of our money as American consumers went straight to the retail sector, to the tangible goods.
[GRETA]
EGYPT’S SUEZ CANAL...
IS CONSIDERED THE...
SHORTEST MARITIME LINK...
BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA.
NEARLY 12 PERCENT...
OF GLOBAL TRADE...
PASSES THROUGH THESE WATERS.
IN MARCH, ONE OF THE WORLD’S
BIGGEST CONTAINER SHIPS
BECAME STUCK IN THE CANAL
FOR NEARLY A WEEK,
BLOCKING HUNDREDS OF SHIPS
AND CREATING A MAJOR
SUPPLY CHAIN SLOW DOWN.
A TRAINING FACILITY IN FRANCE...
IS HOPING TO HELP MARINERS ….
AVOID A SIMILAR PREDICAMENT.
VOA’s ARASH ARABASADI
(PRONO: UH-ROSH ARAB-ASADI)
TELLS US MORE.
[[stop]]
((VAR, ON BOAT/TRAINING, PORT REVEL, FRANCE, REUTERS, 04/19))
((NARRATOR))
Class is in session at a manmade waterway in the foothills of the French Alps. Here, sailors navigate a one-twenty-fifth scale replica of a section of the Suez Canal.
The managing director of the Port Revel training facility, Francois Mayor, says the school’s design tests a captain’s skills.
((Francois Mayor, Port Revel Training Facility ((MAN, FRENCH))))
“That is in order to put trainees in very realistic conditions. We make them work in… normal conditions here, emergency situations where they lose…technical means, or they have to deal with the most varied and complex problems we can put in place for them.”
((VAR, TRAINING))
((NARRATOR))
Instructors teach sailors how to navigate the Suez in extreme weather and amid steering or engine failures. Mayor says France doesn’t get many sandstorms, but there are strong wind gusts that move ships from one side to another.
((VAR, SATELLITE IMAGES, “EVER GIVEN” BLOCKS SUEZ, REUTERS/MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES, FROM SPACE, 03/26))
((mandatory cg MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES))
((NO ARCHIVE))
((NARRATOR))
Recently, one of the world’s largest cargo ships, the Ever Given, became stuck for six days in the Suez Canal. Mayor says for teaching purposes, canals share a common theme: a waterway with little space to maneuver.
((SATELLITE IMAGE, “EVER GIVEN” BLOCKS SUEZ, REUTERS/EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY SENTINEL-2 SATELLITE IMAGE DISTRIBUTED COURTESY OF MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES, FROM SPACE, 03/26))
((mandatory cg EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY COPERNICUS SENTINEL-2 SATELLITE IMAGE DISTRIBUTED COURTESY OF MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES))
((NO ARCHIVE))
((NARRATOR))
Mayor says it’s too soon to know exactly what went wrong in the Suez, but that at Port Revel, the goal is prevention.
((Francois Mayor, Port Revel Training Facility ((MAN, FRENCH))))
“After every accident…we see new clients coming to us, because they have been convinced of the interest of our training…Because a training in Port Revel has nothing to do in terms of costs with the immobilization of a ship like the Ever Given for a day.”
((VAR, TRAININING FACILITY))
((NARRATOR))
Each day, about 12 percent of global trade passes through the Suez Canal. The stranded Ever Given daily delayed more than an estimated nine-and-a-half ((9.6)) billion dollars in trade. Mayor says with stakes that high, big shipping companies may want to consider refresher courses for their staff.
((Arash Arabasadi, VOA News))
[GRETA OC]
FROM UNEXPECTED DELAYS
TO UNPRECEDENTED VOLUME,
THE SHIPPING AND MARITIME
INDUSTRY WORKFORCE HAS
HAD TO ADAPT.
BETHANN ROONEY IS THE...
DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF PORT OPERATIONS...
UNDER THE PORT AUTHORITY...
OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY.
SHE SPOKE WITH
PLUGGED IN PRODUCER
ELIZABETH CHERNEFF (PRONO: CHURN-EFF)
ABOUT THE CHALLENGES WORKERS
HAVE FACED IN MOVING
CARGO AND CRUISE PASSENGER
SHIPS IN AND OUT OF PORTS.
[TAKE SOT]
Bethann Rooney: So we have the benefit of having here what we call the council on court performance and the Council of Court performance was put in place about five years ago when actually we couldn't handle the volume that was in front of us at the time. And the council brings together senior representatives from every sector in the supply chain to come together and work collaboratively and proactively to address the challenges. So it hasn't been easy, but it has been made possible by close relationships, close collaboration. And working together to move the corridors of the customer.
Elizabeth Cherneff: we saw the effect that the supply chain can have on all of us worldwide. Back in March when of course the ever given container ship got stuck in the Suez Canal for nearly a week, it did that blockage impact operations at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
And if so, can you share a little bit about how?
Bethann Rooney: About thirty four percent of all of our cargo that is received in the Port of New York, New Jersey comes through the Suez Canal. So we did have about a dozen vessels that were. Delayed because of the blockage of the Suez Canal and just about half of them decided to wait it out and the other half decided to go around the Cape and around Africa. So what it meant was delays in receiving those ships. But I don't think, at least here in the New York New Jersey area, folks recognized the impact of that vessel as much as they recognized the impact of global shutdown of production when we were only able to get toilet paper and paper towels last March and last April.
Elizabeth Cherneff: We're of course, over a year into the pandemic kind of on the upswing with vaccinations and progress, we see across industries, businesses that have been trying to adapt to this new reality and they will probably face challenges that outlast the pandemic in the future. What are some of the strategies that the Port Authority might put in place to handle the workforce and the workflow going forward?
Bethann Rooney: In the last 14 months, the port has been up and operating the entire time and the workforce has already adapted and the workforce was quick to adapt. And so the workforce with social distancing before social distancing was the terminology for all of us. The workforce had put in cleaning protocols and spacing protocols for sharing equipment again before the CDC had come out with any guidance. I think what what the pandemic has taught all of us is with three. Guards do being able to have supplies or materials and goods on hand, so a lot of what we're seeing today in those very steep surges of cargo are manufacturers that are replenishing their stock and also preparing for a just in case. So just in case there is another global shutdown, manufacturers have been pushing more and more products into the United States so that it's available to us just in case.
[GRETA]
IN FEBRUARY, THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION...
ORDERED A REVIEW OF CRITICAL...
U.S SUPPLY CHAINS...
AFTER COVID LOCKDOWNS...
DISRUPTED MANY VITAL...
PRODUCTION NETWORKS.
VOA’s ARASH ARABASADI...
(PRONO: UH-ROSH ARAB-ASADI)
REPORTS THOSE DISRUPTIONS...
LED TO CREATIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING...
FOR ORGANIZATIONS...
DELIVERING LIFESAVING AID.
[STOP]
((NARRATOR))
Ndeye Yacine Dieng walks in the footsteps of her foremothers.
Like generations of Senegalese women before her, Dieng dries, smokes, and salts fermented fish caught by the men in her community.
But then the pandemic came. Many men stopped fishing. When women found fish, they did not have buyers. Markets closed. Borders followed. The supply chain snapped.
((Ndeye Yacine Dieng, Fish Processor ((WOMAN, FRENCH))))
“COVID has changed our work and our life… Since there is COVID, we live in fear. We are afraid to go far and be affected by COVID-19. It has caused a very, very, very big impact on our local community.”
((NARRATOR))
Dieng’s story is one of supply chains. While her local economy suffers, so too do the economies up and down the chain. The markets. The mariners. All of the people who make their livings through commerce and trade.
The issue also hits home with those working in global health.
Gashaw Shiferaw ((gah-SHA-ow SHE-fehr-ow)) is senior technical advisor at the nonprofit Management Sciences for Health, or MSH. The organization works with governments in more than 40 mostly low-income countries to provide supply chain solutions to their health programs. Success, he says, is all about getting the right medicines to the right places.
((Gashaw Shiferaw, Management Sciences for Health))
((mandatory SKYPE))
“You need products to be successful to have a successful health program implementation. So, to get those products, you need to have a strong system, and that system is a supply chain.”
((NARRATOR))
These chains are only as strong as their weakest link, and this past year put weak links to the test.
((Gashaw Shiferaw, Management Sciences for Health))
((mandatory SKYPE))
“COVID is a great lesson, which is a disaster. We looked at, last year, when there is global shortage everywhere, including the United States. That was a panic where the regular supply chain system that had been working, we need to rethink.”
((NARRATOR))
Shiferaw says MSH worked with the government of the Philippines to develop a data collection app that shows the number of resources and areas in need to keep the supply chains moving. He credits years of work on supply chain infrastructure.
((Gashaw Shiferaw, Management Sciences for Health))
((mandatory SKYPE))
“For the past 10-15 years they brought the supply chain as part of the whole comprehensive strategy, so they start to give attention. Governments start(ed) giving attention to the supply chain.”
((NARRATOR))
And while he praises governments for embracing supply chains, he says more buy-in from the private sector and a stronger sales pitch from governments is needed. Shiferaw says, it’s essential to consider all of the elements that go into even a single dose of medicine.
((Gashaw Shiferaw, Management Sciences for Health))
((mandatory SKYPE)
“You need ((a)) warehouse. You need syringes. You need vials. And you need to have a waste management system, and you need to have even reverse logistics… It’s mindboggling.”
((VAR, VACCINE PRODUCTION, PUNE, INDIA, REUTERS, 05/18/2020))
((NARRATOR))
Ultimately, Shiferaw says he’s optimistic that global health supply chains are bouncing forward – not back – after the year of the pandemic.
(( Arash Arabasadi, VOA News))
[GRETA]
AS COUNTRIES AROUND THE GLOBE …
CONTINUE THE PROCESS...
OF LOOSENING RESTRICTIONS...
AND RE-OPENING THEIR …
COMMUNITIES...
SUPPLY COMPANIES…
ARE SEARCHING…
FOR STRATEGIES…
TO BOOST THEIR RECOVERY.
CREATING SUPPLY CHAINS...
THAT ARE AGILE AND RESILIENT...
WILL HELP SUPPLIERS…
LOOKING FOR WAYS TO MEET ...
CONSUMER DEMAND...
IN THE POST-COVID WORLD.
THOMAS GOLDSBY...
IS A PROFESSOR…
OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
AND LOGISTICS...
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE.
WE SPOKE ABOUT …
SUPPLY CHAINS …
AND THE PANDEMIC…
ECONOMIC RECOVERY.
[STOP]
TG = Thomas Goldsby
GVS = Greta Van Susteren
TG - COVID has had a demonstrative effect on virtually all supply chains. For one thing very few supply chains are wholly domestic, and that means that we rely upon sources from all over the world to provide us with inputs and ingredients to go into all kinds of products and services, and so I tell my students that unless you are making an apple pie or Tennessee whiskey, you're going to be relying extensively on global supply chains, and during the pandemic, most companies didn't really realize that they have suppliers and that suppliers that even though they're immediate term suppliers might be nearby in the same region, those suppliers probably rely on others in varying disparate parts of the world. And as a result, a very different nature by which this pandemic has affected different parts of the world. Some parts have been very much hampered, and others have been able to persevere, but it has slowed its supply chains down near and far throughout the world. Our supply chains I liken to finely tuned string instruments, and when they're finely tuned, they sound beautiful and people can enjoy the symphony of life, if you will. However, a little too much tension and those string starts to break and that's, that's what happened our supply chains they have very narrow tolerances for disruption, and of course we've now witnessed a disruption on the part of the pandemic and so it's taken a considerable amount of time to identify root causes of problems and try to remedy them.
GVS - People think now a lot of focus on supply chain because we, we've seen so much to the problems associated with COVID, but we can also have supply chain problems for instance we all saw in March that that, that container ship in the Suez Canal got stopped and blocked all those container ships, And that was disruptive since that's such a short route from Asia to Europe. So I mean, are we ready for that type of, or even a bridge breaking like in Tennessee your home state. How are we ready for those disruptions?
TG - Well, to varying degrees. Some companies have been quite progressive and studying the risks and vulnerabilities present their supply chains for quite some time and created those options or alternatives that allow them to navigate, or pivot safely around those circumstances and other companies have been left quite flat footed and I think that this pandemic has exposed those vulnerabilities and, as you point out a whole host of other factors introduce themselves every day in the highways and byways and and canals that we rely upon to transport goods and services and so it's wise to be thinking about those alternative courses of action before we have to actually call upon them.
GVS - And I suppose, natural disasters tornadoes, hurricanes, even climate issues could have an impact on supply chain?
TG - Absolutely all the above. I've been involved in supply chain risk management efforts for more than a decade and we've done projects with for profit companies as well as government agencies, and we sit in a room and we wax philosophic about all the things that could go wrong in a business or supply chain, and then we get approached the supply chain partners themselves the companies we ask them what do you from where you're sitting, what do you can you imagine going wrong, and the list just grows exponentially. It's literally 1000s of points of defect that could introduce themselves at any point in the sourcing making a distribution of products and there is no such thing as an ironclad supply chain, but we need to create options that offer an alternative path.
GVS - Is there some issue of supply chain, and the risk that keeps you up at night is there something that you know that we haven't talked about or people are talking about, that we really need to focus on?
TG - Well, I think as soon as things settle down a little bit right now everything's focused on getting products to consumers and doing so at a reasonable price, and I think that attention is going to turn pretty soon back to the environmental and societal costs that we incur in making those products and services available. As one case in point, The European Union is set to take on issues of diligence due diligence and supply chains and I expect that to make quite a bit of news this summer as they think about holding corporate executives criminally liable for doing business in such unsavory parts of the world, for instance, using conflict minerals, child labor force labor, and I think that those issues are going to come back to the forefront once things settle down a little bit but those are the things that keep me up.
[GRETA]
EFFORTS TO KEEP COVID-19 AT BAY...
HAVE ALSO CREATED...
A HUMANITARIAN CRISIS AT SEA.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF MARINERS...
AND THEIR SHIPS FULL OF CARGO...
HAVE BEEN STRANDED AT SEA FOR MONTHS,
THREATENING THE GLOBAL...
SUPPLY CHAIN.
VOA’S HENRY RIDGWELL...
REPORTS ...
FROM LONDON
[STOP]
((VIDEO: REUTERS FOOTAGE OF LPG TANKER))
((NARRATOR))
((cf. mandatory courtesy: ‘CAPTAIN RITESH MEHRA’))
Ritesh Mehra signed up for a four-month contract as captain of a liquid gas tanker in July last year. But he and his crew became stuck on the ship. Coronavirus travel bans meant they were unable to disembark – and other crew unable to travel to take their place.
((Ritesh Mehra, Captain, LPG Carrier (in English) ))
“The part of not being able to go back home in time, and the thought of being chained to this particular place, and in a way you can also say (it is like a) jail, it is bearing on the crew now. They are thinking more about it than the actual job at hand.”
((VIDEO: REUTERS FOOTAGE OF MERCHANT VESSELS AT SEA))
((NARRATOR))
Mehra eventually returned home to India in April.
There are an estimated 1.6 million seafarers worldwide. In normal times they work four to six month contracts before crews are rotated. But global travel restrictions made those rotations increasingly difficult, according to Guy Platten of the International Chamber of Shipping.
((Guy Platten, Secretary General, International Chamber of Shipping))
((cf. mandatory Skype logo))
“By the autumn we had well over 400-thousand who were far beyond their original contract tour lengths, and some of them had been on board for well over a year, up to 18 months.”
((NARRATOR))
It’s estimated that some 200-thousand seafarers are still stranded. India provides tens of thousands of the world’s seafarers – and with the surge in cases there, some major ports are banning sailors that have travelled to India, exacerbating the crew shortages.
((Guy Platten, Secretary General, International Chamber of Shipping))
((cf. mandatory Skype logo))
“What we’re really afraid of now is that just as we were starting to make progress, with the new variants it’s starting to get worse again. And, of course, with (the) idea of some sort of vaccine passport being introduced by countries as they come out of COVID, it’s just going to go back to square one again.”
((VIDEO: REUTERS FOOTAGE OF MILLER GIVING SUPPLIES TO STRANDED CREWS))
((NARRATOR))
In the waters off Hong Kong, dozens of ships lie at anchor, their crews unable to come ashore because of the pandemic. Reverend Stephen Miller of the local Seafarers’ Mission runs a supply launch that delivers goods such as mobile phone SIM cards and snacks to the crewmembers on board. He fears for their mental health.
((Rev. Stephen Miller, Hong Kong Mission to Seafarers))
“You can just imagine it for yourself, you've been planning to go home, you've been planning do things with your family, or maybe see a young child for the first time in many, many months, and then it's taken away from you. So that obviously leads to sadness, which can lead to depression.”
((VIDEO: REUTERS FOOTAGE OF MERCHANT VESSELS AT SEA, CREWS))
((NARRATOR))
Several shipping firms, trade bodies and maritime labor organizations have signed the ‘Neptune Declaration on Seafarer Wellbeing and Crew Change’. It calls for all nations to recognize seafarers as key workers, allow them to travel and offer them priority vaccines.
Chief officer Karynn Marshall spoke to VOA on her way back home to Texas in April, after being stuck at sea for several months.
((Karynn Marshall, Chief Officer))
“Merchant mariners should definitely be priorities when it comes to getting a vaccine. And the fact that we’re not is insane to me. I think companies should work on making their employees, giving the vaccine for their employees so that we can start getting back to a normal crew change, normal rotations, we can all go back to our families.”
((VIDEO: REUTERS/AFP FOOTAGE OF MERCHANT VESSELS AT SEA, CREWS))
((NARRATOR))
The signatories to the Neptune Declaration say seafarers will play a vital role in maintaining supply chains required to roll out global vaccination programs – and all countries must recognize them as key workers.
((Henry Ridgwell, for VOA News, London.))
[[GRETA OC GOODBYE]]
THAT’S ALL THE TIME …
WE HAVE FOR NOW.
THANKS TO MY GUESTS …
PORT OF LOS ANGELES…
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR…
GENE SEROKA…
BETHANN ROONEY...
DEPUTY PORT DIRECTOR...
OF THE NEW YORK/ NEW JERSEY...
PORT AUTHORITY…
AND THOMAS GOLDSBY…
SUPPLY CHAIN EXPERT...
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE.
STAY UP TO DATE …
ON THE LATEST NEWS …
AT VOANEWS.COM.
AND FOLLOW ME …
ON TWITTER …
AT GRETA.
THANK YOU FOR BEING …
PLUGGED IN.
[STOP]
