U.S. demand for imports of products made in China, including personal protective equipment for COVID-19, furniture and toys, increased considerably at the end of 2020.
This means that ocean carriers prioritize getting shipping containers back to China as quickly as possible to get exports to the U.S. and other countries.
Some ocean carriers opt to leave the U.S. with empty shipping containers rather than filling them up with U.S.-made products.
The director of business development for the Northwest Seaport Alliance, which runs the marine cargo operation for the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma, said that she has been pressing ocean carriers to make more shipping containers available.