About 45,000 port workers in the US are poised to strike, which may affect import and export trade. Photo: RNZ / Kymberlee Fernandes
Port strikes in the United States could cause major disruption for importers and exporters in New Zealand.
About 45,000 dockworkers at all the major US ports on the eastern coast and the Gulf of Mexico are threatening to strike on 1 October with pay talks at a stalemate.
This comes as New Zealand exporters report feeling more optimistic about the coming year with new free trade deals potentially helping growth.
Freight company C. H. Robinson's Oceania Vice President Andrew Coldrey said the industrial action could make global shipping schedules unreliable and increase costs.
He said that will flow through to New Zealand trade businesses.
"For those trading with the US, if there is a strike, you're basically shutting down half the service as the whole East Coast of the US gets shut down... That flows on to pricing impacts if there is more demand on the existing capacity out of the West Coast.
"Then the other consideration is, regardless of where you're trading with the US, any kind of supply chain shock has far reaching impacts... So, carriers that are going all around the world, it means that their schedule reliability isn't there. There are less services but also equipment doesn't get to all the places that it needs to be."
Meanwhile, the shipping container industry has reported rising freight demand for US bound shipments.
Global marketplace Container xChange's latest report said the potential port strikes, as well as railway strikes in Canada, are forcing North American supply chains to prepare for disruption.
Coldrey said it being an election year in the US there is likely to be more pressure on the government to resolve the strikes quickly.
But he said even a short strike will cause problems with a week's worth of action likely to delay freight for months.
Importers and exporters in New Zealand are being advised to brace themselves.
"A lot of people have been a bit more defensive and holding a bit more inventory. The other thing we've been doing is to try and where possible use a multi-carrier strategy to not being too reliant on any one shipping line that may able to divert cargo to the West Coast.
"You can also offer trucking solutions so we can truck cargo to the West Coast to meet vessels. There are also airfreight alternatives.
"Obviously not all product can sustain the the cost... and then the other thing that we can do is we can offer consolidation services to say people who would normally bring in full container loads, we can shift part container loads more frequently," said Coldrey.