Global Shortage of Containers

[Tigger]

Out for a walk yesterday and saw something that caught my eye--4 containerships at anchor in Vancouver. There were also 2 in Victoria, and 4 doing donuts off Prince Rupert. This never happens--those vessels are always in and out on tight timelines, and are usually only anchored if a major winter storm has slowed down the railway delivery of cans. What's going on?

Turns out that the Chinese economy has recovered more quickly than expected, and that due to supply and demand the shipping companies can make more money quickly by sending empty cans back to China than they can by transporting other stuff.

https://financialpost.com/commodities/a ... ner-crisis

[H B]

One of the things I read in that article was the expected cost to rise for transporting stuff.

This is a first world problem, but a local comparison. We have a local restaurant that was selling uncooked crab cakes for $12/each, which we would pick up and bring home to cook during the pandemic. Now that things are starting to move again...they advertised that they can no longer can sell them for $12, but now $16, because the supplier says that with the cost of oil rising now it costs more to get them to the restaurant. I suspect by the summer, they will stop 'carry out' altogether since the servers don't make much money on carry out food, although we personally still tipped as if we'd sat down to eat, knowing they needed the money much more desperately than we did.

Trickle down...but seems to almost directly correlate. Even at $16, they are excellent crabcakes!

[Ish]

One of the things I read in that article was the expected cost to rise for transporting stuff.

This is a first world problem, but a local comparison. We have a local restaurant that was selling uncooked crab cakes for $12/each, which we would pick up and bring home to cook during the pandemic. Now that things are starting to move again...they advertised that they can no longer can sell them for $12, but now $16, because the supplier says that with the cost of oil rising now it costs more to get them to the restaurant. I suspect by the summer, they will stop 'carry out' altogether since the servers don't make much money on carry out food, although we personally still tipped as if we'd sat down to eat, knowing they needed the money much more desperately than we did.

Trickle down...but seems to almost directly correlate. Even at $16, they are excellent crabcakes!

How big are these crabcakes? $16 US is pricey here.

[H B]

um..i'd have to look it up..7 or 8 oz. maybe? I have no idea what that is in Canadian grams...lol..oh wait. its 30:1, so 210-240 grams??

In summer, crabs & crabcakes are often "market price", so they don't have to adjust the menu every few days. I won't pay $20 for a crabcake sammich, that is too high...I like MD blue crabs but not that much. $16 for carry out is getting expensive..and restaurant restrictions are lifted here except for "standing at a crowded bar", so the restaurants should have business ramping back up again. $12 to walk down the street and pick up a few to help a struggling business in a pandemic was a nice treat...

[Slick470]

I'm the only one in my house who likes to eat crab, and I'm just far enough from the bay that there aren't any good crab places nearby. (well, there is a red lobster a few miles away, but it doesn't count) There are also some good but expensive seafood places around.

So, I tend to treat myself to one or two overpriced crab sandwiches at market rate a summer. I do like to get whole crabs and pick at them, but that is just as much a social thing as a food thing and requires the time to do it. With the family, getting a sandwich or lump platter is easier to manage, if a bit more expensive. oh well.

[BeauV]

There are a lot of things that have gone up in price, but crab hasn't been one of them around here. The price fluctuates wildly based on availability, but that's caused by crabs not oil.

What is skyrocketing downward right now are raw materials grown in the US that are unable to get shipped out to other places, like soy flour. But, that's just because free-enterprise doesn't have a sense of "fairness" or "kindness". If you're trying to ship a low-cost commodity product right now, you probably can't find containers. Too bad. Folks who think this is "wrong" somehow simply don't understand that this is Darwinian evolution applied to farms.

When a farmer grows only one crop, this sort of market disruption can be fatal. That sort of hyper optimization has killed more family farms than anything I know. The local farmers who have always grown a wide variety of crops are doing just fine as things like blueberries and mushrooms are booming with more folks cooking at home.

[LarryHoward]

Back to crab, prices fluctuate seasonally. Wintertime, folks don't think much about eating crab plus any crab coming is is usually central America sourced and canned, hence the transportation. As warmer weather comes, we get fresh crab from the coast and then Chesapeake Crab after Memorial Day. As harvest varies based on a lot of factors. A few years ago, a record winter Red Drum population in the lower Bay decimated the baby crabs and killed a forecast bumper season. Last year, restaurants were essentially closed and the lack of demand suppressed prices. The year before, lack of "pickers" on seasonal Visas (Thanks Trump) ran prices up for crab meat but lowered it on whole crab. Market price is a real thing. One of my employees' fiancé is a waterman and his Crab prices were so low last summer that he didn't always go out as the Diesel to run the boat made it a losing proposition. As a rule of thumb, fresh, clean "lump crabmeat" runs about $24/lb at the fish market. Canned "imported" around 18-2o at the supermarket

Randy (owner of the restaurant in question) did all he could to stay afloat, including selling fresh food as a "market" prepared but uncooked things such as crab cakes and each night has a family dinner special cooked and ready for take out (you better have ordered early afternoon or he ran out). His biggest worry was the help as most of his wait staff are local kids home from college for the summer and he did what he could but they didn't earn their summer pay in 2020. I know him casually (he used to have the closest restaurant to me before moving to "the Island" by Shawn) and damage to the staff was his biggest worry. He didn't get approved for a PPL in the first tranche and I know was trying hard to get one when it reopened to "help out the kids." Like Shawn, we tipped pretty lavishly when we picked up a takeaway meal.

[LarryHoward]

Speaking of the restaurant, we are at the socially distanced bar awaiting a table for our anniversary dinner.

[Jamie]

Congratulations!

[BeauV]

Speaking of the restaurant, we are at the socially distanced bar awaiting a table for our anniversary dinner.

CONGRATS!!!

[kimbottles]

Happy Anniversary Captain and Lynne (Did I get the spelling/name correct?)

[LarryHoward]

Thanks guys. Yes, Kim, the Aussie spells her name with an E.

[kimbottles]

Thanks guys. Yes, Kim, the Aussie spells her name with an E.

Whew! I was sweating that “e” but I was pretty sure it was correct.

[Slick470]

Happy anniversary Larry. You should post the picture that Lynne put put up on Facebook.

[LarryHoward]

15EFD7AE-AD32-4B0E-A55F-5B5F4379DEFD.jpeg

Couple of young kids in 1988.

[BeauV]

Congrats, Larry. Those "kids" look happy!

[LarryHoward]

Congrats, Larry. Those "kids" look happy!

Thanks. 33 and 27 back then.

Olaf. Garden of the “Melbourne Club” was the venue. Jazz quartet under the plane tree.

[Olaf Hart]

Congrats, Larry. Those "kids" look happy!

Thanks. 33 and 27 back then.

Olaf. Garden of the “Melbourne Club” was the venue. Jazz quartet under the plane tree.

All the trimmings, it obviously worked, congratulations.....

[Jamie]

Nice moustache

[kimbottles]

What a handsome Lt Commander! No wonder that lovely gal fell for him.

[H B]

nice, Larry. Congrats!