A Heads Up from Panga Pablo
I'm sure some of you have already experienced delays in getting your boats, RV's and off-road vehicles serviced this year. I don't have to tell you; it's a real mess out there. For those of you who who typically wait until Spring to get your boats serviced or if you're in the market to buy something new for you or your family... The waiting list is long, the inventory is low, and the parts are scarce!
Consider yourself informed. The boating industry is on fire as are most other outdoor activities like skiing, fishing and cycling. It's interesting, being we are in a global pandemic, there is such a demand for "big ticket" items like boats, yachts, recreational vehicles and everything in between. This increase demand and lack of production due to COVID has created a huge shortage of these products in the market place.
There seems to be two driving forces behind this situation: people want to vacation outdoors and most everything we buy is either imported or has imported parts. For the boating industry, materials like fiberglass, outboard motors, electronics, and navigation systems mainly come from Asia. We rely heavily on foreign goods in our everyday lives and until COVID, we had a steady supply.
So what happened? That's a good question Panga Pablo.
It's the domino effect from a "Perfect Storm". Bear with me here... As people got sick from COVID, factories temporarily closed around the world, which created less production of goods, leading to a drop in the demand for shipping. These events prompted the Chinese shipping industry to scale back and pull ships from service, which created a shortage of containers because American demand for products actually increased during COVID. This imbalance created a massive shortage of space on existing ocean transporters, which resulted in record shipping costs. Are you still with me? We're not quite done... With COVID protocols in place at the Port of Los Angeles, and the ongoing politics between the Port Operators, Carriers, Trucking Companies and the Longshoreman, things quickly backed up at the port as did the ships anchored offshore. Now let's bring in the big guns, the final players into the equation: the American Icon Companies who have the power to get their products on these ships from around the world and on their store shelves. If you guessed companies like Amazon, Costco and the Home Depot, you just won an ice cold Barrilito Cerveza from Panga Pablo.
Yes, these American Icon companies can influence any country, industry or political party. When 80% of the containers on a ship belong to Amazon, and they need a few more added on, guess who gets bumped? Damn, I think I'll be buying you Panga-Lifers a lot of Barrilitos soon!
For a good read on the Port of Los Angeles and the struggles ahead, here's a link you may like to read.
To finish up on a positive note, with the Chinese holiday approaching (February 11-17), we will more than likely see the Port congestion ease as there will be fewer ships transporting goods during the month of February when Chinese factories are closed. Many Chinese extend their holiday through the end of February so hopefully we can get our ports back inline and our products back on the shelves for the Summer so we can all enjoy and immerse in the "Panga-Life."
Pablo