What the port strike means for Boston and local businesses

Some local businesses, from wine importers to furniture stores, were nervous in anticipation of the strike.

“It's costing us money and our international competitiveness,” said David Shipps-Kelly, director of transportation and logistics at Foxborough-based International Forest Products, a global distributor of recycled paper and wood products owned by the family of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Shipps-Kelly said even a short strike would drive up shipping costs that would be passed on to consumers. And the longer the work stoppage lasts, the worse it gets.

Ahead of the strike, companies scrambled to find ways to get their goods in before the upcoming holiday season. Jennifer Mehigan, spokeswoman for Massport, which operates the Port of Boston, said traffic at the port increased earlier this year as companies stocked up on imported goods. “We saw the increase months ago – our spring and early summer volumes were strong,” Mehigan said. “The importers have known this for a long time.”

But others waited until it was too late. Al Brari, owner of AJB Transportation, a trucking company in Beverly, said Monday that he frequently receives calls from desperate importers asking him to pick up their loads from the port before Tuesday's strike deadline. “They started on Friday,” Brari said. “Now they annoy me every minute.” But Brari said he only has 12 of the trailers needed to haul shipping containers, and his regular customers have opted for all of them.

Robert Hurley, president of Cynthia Hurley French Wines in Newton, said it would have been too expensive to purchase additional supplies of imported wines and bear the cost of storing them in a warehouse. “It’s not that drastic,” Hurley said. “We have a lot of inventory.”

Still, he said the strike would hurt. “This is the busiest time of year,” Hurley said. “In any case, we will lose sales and money.”

Boston Harbor is dwarfed by other U.S. ports. Its Conley Container Terminal handled 145,000 shipping containers in fiscal year 2024, which ended June 30. The combined Port of New York and New Jersey, on the other hand, handled slightly fewer than 4 million containers in 2023.

In 2022, Massport completed an $850 million expansion of the port, including the installation of three giant cranes to load and unload cargo and dredging the port to accommodate larger ships.

The Port of Boston is important to local businesses who find it a convenient way to source imported goods. William George, research director at shipping research firm Import Genius, uses U.S. customs data to track seaports used by major companies.

Online home goods retailer Wayfair relies on East Coast ports for about 65 percent of all imported goods, George said. But George said only a handful of those products are shipped to Boston.

Marlborough-based BJ's Wholesale Club is a different story. Data from Import Genius shows that BJ's sources a quarter of its imports through the Port of Boston and about half through New York-New Jersey.

As for Taunton-based Jordan's Furniture, Import Genius estimates that the company sources about 90 percent of its imported items through the Port of Boston.

Wayfair and Jordan's Furniture declined to comment. BJ's Warehouse Club did not respond to a request for comment.

Shipps-Kelly of International Forest Products said his company moved 50,000 containers last year, but only about 2,500 through the Port of Boston. With all East Coast ports closed, his company will be forced to ship more of its products through West Coast ports. And even if the strike ends, it will take weeks to clear the backlog of ships waiting to unload, he predicted. The strike is also preventing empty containers from being returned to shippers around the world, causing further delays.

“It doesn’t just start and stop,” Shipps-Kelly said. “Vessels are currently anchored off the coast waiting for a solution.”

Shipping companies worldwide will respond to the pent-up demand with higher fees. Some might even try to collect “demurrage” from customers – a fee that ship owners can charge if they can't bring a cargo ashore and go looking for more business. The Federal Maritime Commission last week warned ship operators not to charge demurrage fees for delays caused by a strike.

Still, a prolonged strike could lead to higher prices and shortages of popular consumer goods, just in time for the holidays and a presidential election.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @GlobeTechLab.