JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — California ports are finally accepting idle cargo ships into their ports, but those ships are being replaced by more ships off the coast of Mexico.
AGX Freight Chief Operating Officer Ike Sherlock said the situation doesn't do much to alleviate the current supply chain backlog.
He wants to assure people will "get everything they need for Christmas, but will probably not be able to get everything they want."
Sherlock deals with freight companies and transporting goods, almost as a "middleman" in the supply chain. He believes the current situation will benefit North Florida in the immediate and distant future.
"What we are seeing is large shippers especially start to hedge their bets," Sherlock explained. "If they shipped 80 percent of their cargo to the West Coast and 20 percent of their cargo to the East Coast in the past, now they're going to be shipping 60/40."
Sherlock added Asian freight companies would have to account for the extra time it would take cargo to get to the east Coast. But it would ultimately be worth the wait.
"Jacksonville is within a one day truck drive of 100 million consumers. We're really going to be able to benefit from that especially at JAXPORT," Sherlock said.
In addition to Asian freight, JAXPORT has already received European freight. Hapag-Lloyd, a freight company, brought it's first container to JAXPORT on Nov. 21.