- Video shows MSU Broad College of Business Professor Jason Miller, explaining potential supply chain impacts of Port of Baltimore closure.
- This port disruption comes after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on Tuesday, due to a massive cargo ship striking a support pillar.
- The Port of Baltimore is closed until further notice.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
Jason Miller is a professor and Interim Chairperson in the Department of Supply Chain Management at MSU.
He expects the biggest import and export affected from this port disruption will be automobiles and light trucks.
"We import about 23-billion dollars a year through that port," Miller said. "And then we also export about 5-billion dollars of vehicles each year out of that port."
So, Miller says that here in our neighborhoods, dealerships could face a backlash.
"Most of those vehicles would be going potentially initially to a wholesaler and then finally to the dealer lot. So as we think about it locally, it would be showing up at the BMW dealer lot."
Other areas of impact could include farming and construction equipment, and primary metals like finished steel.
"Potentially some manufacturers if there are manufacturers in Michigan that are specifically bringing in imported metals and what not from Europe into the US through that port, we could see some disruption there."
But knowing how much of that cargo will make it to our neighborhoods, is also hard to tell.
"On the industrial side we could see a little bit more disruption in terms of, if specialized steel is coming through and there's not an alternative quickly to reroute that, then things could be disrupted for manufacturers and whatnot."
Miller says thanks to current efficiencies in US ports, he has hope this disruption will be solved efficiently. But it's still far too early to see.
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