Logistics companies scramble with Port of Baltimore closed until further notice

Started the financial impact and the disruption this will have on shipping and logistics. Lorianne Larocco, CNBC’s global supply chain reporter, joins us now in Laurie and welcome. Good to have you here. Let’s set a little level here. How big is that port and what are the major items that come into and go out of it? Sure. So the Port of Baltimore is the 11th largest port in the United States, but it’s critical to our imports and our exports. And here’s why it is the largest importer and exports of all automobiles and light trucks. Larger than the port of LA, Yes it is. In terms of imports and exports, it’s the largest they got. Roros roll on and roll offs. It is also the second largest port for coal exports. So that is very big for our GDP. And so this combined between the commodities as well as the containers. You’ve got Home Depot, you have a Kia, you have agricultural products, you have Bob’s furniture. All these retailers are bringing their product in into this port and then they disseminate it out to, you know, the rest of the United States. So when you look at what can happen now, where do all these shipments go in and out out of now? As everything tries to rebuild there. Sure. So I’ve spoken with ocean carers like Maersk, which of course is the one that’s chartering the vessel here. They’re already diverting the vessels to the ports of New York, New Jersey. They’re Virginia as well as Savannah and all of the ports have told me they definitely have the capacity of receiving the products, particularly when you’re looking at the automobiles, when you’re looking at Savannah and and the other port down there. The problem is, is the rails, the rails have to now reconfigure the equipment, the chassis right to get to these ports to receive the extra the extra containers so while the ports can receive it. They have to then push them out of them. Maybe you don’t know this or maybe you do. I can imagine that there may be vessels that are actually in the port of Baltimore with and it’s also a cruise port vessels in the port of Baltimore that can’t get out. Most definitely you have, you have them going by memory here, you have about 5 vessels that are currently stuck in the port where you know nowhere to go. And then you’ve got Royal Caribbean and you have Carnival. And so it really is amazing to see how one port even though people say, oh, it’s just. The 11th largest port, it’s extremely significant to the economy.