US To Publish Weekly Shipping Container Info

by Leroy Baker, Tax-News.com, New York

13 July 2012

The US Department of Agriculture has announced the launch of a new weekly report that will provide a regular snapshot of maritime shipping container availability at select locations around the United States.

The Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report will, on a weekly basis from July 11, provide a snapshot of container availability for westbound trans-Pacific trade lanes at different intermodal locations around the country. The data will be voluntarily provided by all ten ocean carrier members of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA), and will be published by the Transport Services Division every Wednesday.

“Agricultural exporters, particularly those in the US heartland, often face great difficulty in finding available marine shipping containers,” explained Arthur Neal, Transportation and Marketing deputy administrator. “This new report was developed to provide more information to help facilitate the exporting of agricultural products. The industry’s collaboration in this effort was vital to making this report a reality."

The new report contains information on five types of marine shipping containers at 18 intermodal locations. The report will provide the carrier's estimates of equipment availability for the current week as well as two-week availability projections. The data is designed to offer a more transparent view of container flows, increase efficiencies and provide additional information to help US exporters of all types of cargo locate infrastructure to move their products.

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