Gwen Sparks, (202) 260-8210 gwen.sparks@ams.usda.gov
WASHINGTON, July 11, 2012 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture is releasing a new report that identifies the availability of marine shipping containers at select locations around the country.
The new Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report provides a weekly snapshot of container availability for westbound transpacific trade lanes at different intermodal locations around the country. The data is voluntarily provided by all ten ocean carrier members of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA). USDA’s Transportation Services Division, part of the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), will publish the aggregate data from WTSA each Wednesday, beginning July 11, at www.ams.usda.gov/OSCAR. This is the first time this collective information on container availability has been available to the public.
“Agricultural exporters, particularly those in the U.S. heartland, often face great difficulty in finding available marine shipping containers,” said Arthur Neal, Transportation and Marketing deputy administrator. “This new report was developed to provide more information to help facilitate the exporting of agricultural products. The industry’s collaboration in this effort was vital to making this report a reality.”
The new report contains information on five types of marine shipping containers at 18 intermodal locations. The report will provide the carriers’ estimates of equipment availability for the current week and projections two weeks out. The data will offer a more transparent view of container flows, increasing efficiencies and providing additional information to help U.S. exporters of all types of cargo locate equipment to move their products.
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