Yahoo Autos 2000 Nissan, Infiniti Vehicles Floated for a Week off Los Angeles Coast
It usually takes just half a day to unload a massive cargo ship of its cars, but since demand is way down, a shipment of about 2000 new Nissan/Infiniti vehicles had to sit offshore for a while, as Bloomberg reported this week.
The vehicles were Nissan Armada SUVs, Rogue crossovers, and Infiniti sedans that had just spent three weeks coming from Japan, and there was no place to put them on land near the port since other vehicles had already created a logjam.
Having too many cars is unlikely to be a long-term problem for U.S. ports, as one prediction is that auto shipments will be down 25 percent this year.
If you're feeling like there's not enough room in your own home or apartment these days, imagine trying to cram 2000 cars in there. A version of this spatial challenge happened in Los Angeles when a large cargo ship carrying about that many Nissan and Infiniti vehicles arrived and then someone told the ship's captain, in short, we're all full here so thanks but no thanks.
The cargo ship in question is the Jupiter Spirit, a 600-foot-long (183 meter) vessel operated by Nissan Motor Car Carrier Company that sails under the Liberian flag. After a three-week trip from Japan, where the vehicles were produced, the ship was forced to float offshore for almost a week before finally being allowed to unload its cargo April 29. The Jupiter Spirit is currently on its way up to Tacoma, Washington.
