Hawaii Avoids Port Backups But Some Goods Are Scarce … Businesses from health care to restaurants have struggled to get some back-ordered items.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The port bottlenecks that have plagued the mainland have spared Hawaii’s major shippers, but the state’s businesses are still struggling to get merchandise that’s been slowed down by supply chain crimps likely to continue into 2022.
Fortunately, at least so far, Hawaii has avoided the biggest problems seen on the mainland, where the combination of a backlog of super-sized foreign-owned container ships at major West Coast ports, record shipping prices and transportation gridlock have combined to slow cargoes to a crawl.
The problems aren’t over yet: Trans-Pacific cargoes are still experiencing lengthy delays between Asia and far-flung mainland destinations, with shipments that took under 45 days in the summer of 2019 now dragging to a record 110 days.
