A commodity supply crisis looms in the United States after the collapse of the “Baltimore” bridge

Washington – In less than half a minute on Tuesday morning, a bridge approximately 2.2 km long collapsed in the United States, after a container ship collided with one of the bases of the bridge, which is linked to one of the most important commercial ports in the east of the country.

The bridge, or what is known locally as “Francis Scott Key,” collapsed in the American city of Baltimore, after a large container ship collided with it, according to what was reported by the Maryland Transportation Authority.

On Wednesday, analysts in the American insurance industry expected that the bridge collapse accident would cost insurance companies billions of dollars, and losses could reach $4 billion, which would make the tragedy a record loss in shipping insurance.

In a press statement on Wednesday, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said that Baltimore is the largest port for handling vehicles in the country, including cars and heavy agricultural equipment.

With the suspension of ship traffic in the Port of Baltimore until further notice since the accident, the frequency of warnings began to rise in the United States, regarding side effects, especially those related to supplies of goods, coal, cars, and equipment.

The US Department of Transportation estimates that between $100 and $200 million worth of inbound trade comes through the port daily, with about $2 million in wages each day.

As of Thursday, ocean shipping companies, other ports and cargo owners are still working to figure out where to divert ships heading this way.

Besides the direct hit to thousands of workers at the Port of Baltimore, Maryland Governor Wes Moore warned in an interview with CNN that more than 140,000 people could be indirectly affected by the unrest.

He said: “The Port of Baltimore has a major economic impact, not only on my state. The port handled more than 50 million tons of foreign goods last year. This is the impact it will have on our country’s economy.”

While Moody’s, the credit rating agency, said in an urgent note following the incident that replacing the collapsed bridge “is likely to take months or even years.”

Even today, insurers evaluate potential losses across many product lines, including real estate, merchandise, marine, liability, trade credit and emergency business interruption.

While the port administration announced that goods heading to Baltimore will likely be partially diverted to the port of New York and New Jersey… “But this will cause a major crisis there due to the accumulation of a large number of ships since the incident occurred.”

While there will be “noticeable headaches” in the coming months, economist Ryan Sweet of Oxford Economics expects companies to be able to adapt, according to an interview with the New York Times.

He added: “There will be disruptions in the supply chain… and I do not think it will have a significant impact on the overall economy, because there are many large ports nearby.”

He added that there would likely be a “limited supply shock,” but it would not have a significant impact on US consumer goods inflation or GDP.

Some sectors will be more affected, such as automobiles, as the Port of Baltimore’s private and public terminals handled more than 840,000 cars and light trucks in 2023, the largest number among American ports.

Also, the port is an important gateway for specialized cargo and bulk cargo handling, especially coal exported abroad.

Among the car companies that import through Baltimore is automaker Mazda, which said that the Port of Baltimore is “a vital part of the Mazda logistics chain in the United States.”

While automaker Stellantis said in a statement that it had begun talks with transportation service providers for “contingency plans to ensure the uninterrupted flow of vehicles to customers.”

The port also ranked second last year in the United States in terms of coal exports.

While volumes exported through the Port of Baltimore represent about a quarter of U.S. seaborne coal exports, the United States only makes up about 6 percent of global seaborne trade, Alexis Ellender, a senior analyst at trade intelligence firm Kpler, told The Washington Post.

Anatolia