The backlog caused by the dockworkers' 72-hour strike that closed 36 ports from Maine to Texas this week — including the Port of New York and New Jersey — could take between two to three weeks to clear out, said one Wall Street analyst.
Still, that amounts to a “temporary logistics impact and very little economic impact,” said the analyst, Peter Tirschwell, vice president for maritime and trade at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Beth Rooney, director of ports for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey — which leases space at the ports to the shipping and terminal companies — was more optimistic, saying that the backlog would be at most a week.
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"It's not unusual for the port to be closed for two or three days for winter storms," Rooney said during a virtual press conference Friday morning. "In instances of things like Hurricane Sandy or 9/11, we were closed five days or longer and we were able to recovery in a very quick way."
Tirschwell of S&P told NorthJersey.com Friday morning that “since the union had been openly and repeatedly threatening a strike since last November the potential was well known to retailers and other importers who advanced shipments of large volumes of goods beginning around April of this year."
“Thus most holiday season goods are already in the country and so we expect very little if any impact on the holiday season,” he said.
The fast rebound of the ports depends on the buy-in of the entire supply chain in both New York and New Jersey, from rail to trucks and warehouses, in terms of utilizing all available hours, said Rooney.
All told, more than 47,000 dock workers from the International Longshoremen’s Association went on strike starting at midnight on Oct. 1, demanding higher pay as well as job protections from automation. It was the ILA’s first strike since 1977. That one had lasted 45 days.
On Thursday evening, the ILA and the United States Maritime Alliance, or USMX, a group of shipping and port terminal companies, issued a joint statement that the two sides had reached a tentative deal on a new contract, and that port activity would resume immediately.
That deal includes a wage hike of 62% over six years as opposed to the 77% demanded by the ILA.
They agreed to extend the old contract that had expired Oct. 1 to Jan. 15 so the two sides could negotiate all other outstanding issues.
Fear of port automation
Union members feared that port automation could mean job cuts and wanted to negotiate the use of any such technology by marine operators.
Leaders at the ILA had cut off contract talks in June after learning that a form of automation had been introduced at the Port of Mobile in Alabama, an action they said violated the existing contract.
Rooney said that there is no automation at any of the port facilities, just "semi-automation" at the container yard in Port Liberty Bayonne.
J.P. Morgan analysts previously projected that a strike could cost the U.S economy $5 billion, but said in a Friday note that the strike could have only a minimal impact.
“Freight rates will continue to normalize,” J.P. Morgan analysts wrote on Friday morning.
In New York and New Jersey, the economic impact on the 19 counties that surround the ports of both states was between $250 million and $300 million for every day of the strike, Rooney said.
But ultimately, the impact was short-lived beyond panic-buying for water bottles and paper goods like toilet paper.
“That stock will be replaced quickly,” said Kevin Lyons, a supply chain expert at the Rutgers Business School in Newark.
Dozens of cargo ships waiting offshore
At least 45 container vessels that have been unable to unload were anchored outside the strike-hit East Coast and Gulf Coast ports by Wednesday, up from just three before the strike began on Sunday, according to Everstream Analytics.
There were 11 container vessels idling Friday morning just south of Long Island waiting to get into the ports of New York and New Jersey, according to the ship-tracking website vesselfinder.com .
Rooney of the Port Authority said there were 24 vessels — 19 container vessels, four automobile vessels and one specialty vessel — carrying a combined 35,000 import containers that were waiting Friday to unload their cargo.
There were roughly 1,000 refrigerated containers in the port and carrying all manner of goods from food to medical equipment, flowers and wines and spirits, Rooney said.
Port workers are going through those containers to see what was plugged in.
"I don't expect there to be spoilage of any of those commodities," Rooney said.
Another cargo ship was anchored just outside the ports of Newark and Elizabeth, as are another three in The Narrows, a stretch of water separating Staten Island and Brooklyn.
One of the operators in the port, Elizabeth-based APM Terminals , said that while rail operations within the port will resume Friday afternoon and vessel operations will resume Friday at 7 p.m., the gates letting trucks in will be closed Friday, and reopened with shortened hours on Saturday and regular hours next week.
Representatives for the U.S Coast Guard could not be immediately reached by email Friday morning.
The strike affected 36 ports — including New York, Baltimore and Houston — that handle a range of containerized goods.
Strike could have affected prices if it had lasted longer
Economists have said the port closures would not initially raise consumer prices because companies had accelerated shipments in recent months of key goods. However, a prolonged stoppage would have eventually filtered through, with food prices likely to rise first, according to Morgan Stanley economists.
"After the first week, we can expect some impact on perishable products like bananas, other fruits, seafood, and coffee, meaning fewer goods are reaching consumers, potentially driving up prices," Tony Pelli, global practice director for security & resilience at BSI Americas, told Reuters.
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Business groups like the National Retail Federation had urged President Joe Biden to “use any and all available authority and tools” to end the strike and force the dock workers back to their jobs, something Biden resisted.
"I want to thank the union workers, the carriers, and the port operators for acting patriotically to reopen our ports and ensure the availability of critical supplies for Hurricane Helene recovery and rebuilding," Biden said in a statement Thursday night.
"Collective bargaining works, and it is critical to building a stronger economy from the middle out and the bottom up," he said.
This article contains material from USA Today.
Daniel Munoz covers business, consumer affairs, labor and the economy for NorthJersey.com and The Record.
Email: munozd@northjersey.com ; Twitter: @danielmunoz100 and Facebook
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: How long will backlog from strike at NY and NJ ports take to clear?
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