US recyclers fear long-term impact of ports dispute

United States – US scrap exporters lost hundreds of millions of dollars during the nine-month West Coast port labour dispute. The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) is concerned that port congestion and long delays to export shipments could result in ‘permanent loss of market share’, with overseas customers ‘losing confidence in our ability to reliably deliver scrap commodities’.

ISRI president Robin Wiener has pointed out in a letter to Penny Pritzker, US Secretary of Commerce, that recyclers lost multi-million dollar sums per day as ports were forced to turn away traffic. ‘Fortunately, a complete shutdown appears to have been averted as that would been even more devastating’, she underlines.

‘Scrap is the top export by volume out of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach,’ Wiener stresses, adding that the dispute between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association caused the scrap recycling industry significant ‘collateral damage’.

ISRI estimates that scrap exports from West Coast ports declined nearly 12% in 2014 to less than US$ 8.4 billion. The downturn became ‘more pronounced as the year progressed and the port situation deteriorated,’ the industry body claims. Wiener says: ‘In December 2014, the value of scrap exports from the West Coast plunged 17% year-on-year, reflecting a year-over-year volume decrease of nearly 160 000 tonnes of scrap and a decline in scrap export sales approaching US$ 130 million for the month of December alone.’

Also, the dispute hit many workers hard, Wiener points out. ‘Scrap exports support 35 000 jobs in California, Washington and Oregon, and hundreds of thousands more across the country that process, broker, ship and perform numerous other roles in the manufacture of recycled commodities. Many of these workers lost their jobs or saw a reduction in hours as a result of the slowdown.’

In a final plea to the Department of Commerce, Wiener urges: ‘As the parties on the West Coast begin to restore full operations and clear the backlogs at the ports, it is critical that we work together in the future to avoid these disruptions that are so costly in terms of economic growth, jobs and our balance of trade.’