Mudslides not affecting Calif. shipments
By Thomas Russell -- Furniture Today, January 30, 2005
High Point — Mudslides and flooding that knocked out some rail service in southern California do not yet appear to be having much effect on furniture shipments.
Concerns arose after the early January flooding washed out some key Union Pacific rail lines in southern California and southern Nevada. Because of the damage, the railroad imposed an embargo on traffic into California and southern Nevada. The embargo started on Jan. 11 and was expected to last two to three weeks.
Because the lines serve the Los Angeles area, the situation could interrupt the flow of goods coming into the Long Beach and Los Angeles ports. In some cases, companies have been forced to find alternative routes, a situation that is expected to delay the port turnaround time for container ships.
A Union Pacific spokesperson recently told the Journal of Commerce that the railroad was not accepting cargo from the ports for a mainline route running north of Las Vegas through to Chicago. Other major cities affected by the embargo include Kansas City, St. Louis, Denver, Omaha, Neb., and Salt Lake City.
The Journal also reported that another route running north of Los Angeles/Long Beach to the San Francisco bay area to the Pacific Northwest was only offering limited service.
Traffic between Los Angeles/Long Beach and El Paso, Houston, Dallas, Memphis and New Orleans is not affected, according to a North American Rail Update published on Globe Express Services' Web site.
Furniture importers are watching the situation closely, particularly because of the amount of Asian imports that flows through the affected ports. Those goods are shipped to retailers all over the country.
Legacy Classic President and CEO Kevin O'Connor said the situation could cause shipping delays between 10 days and two weeks.
Kemp Enterprises President Bill Kemp said his company hasn't seen any significant delays yet, but said it is too early to gauge the full effect.
"I would assume it would have a major impact, because there is more and more product coming in that is discharged by rail," he said. "The effect of that may just be getting to the point of raising its ugly head."
Don Mecke, vice president of sales and marketing for Standard Furniture, said his company is experiencing some delays because of the flooding. But he said it hasn't affected a huge amount of Standard's shipments because much of its goods flow into the port of Mobile, Ala.
"We haven't had a lot of interruption in the flow of product that is significant," he said. "There are a lot of e-mails flying around in the shipping business, but it really hasn't impacted our business."
Officials at Largo received some word to expect some shipping delays. However, they couldn't tell if those delays related to ongoing container shortages following the peak holiday season, or to the Union Pacific rail situation.
"As to what delays and how long it might be, that has yet to be determined," said Barry Klempnauer, Largo vice president of marketing. "We think it is more due to the amount of containers they have to work with as opposed to the washout."
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Calif. flooding doesn't slow furniture shipments
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