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WASHINGTON (August 18, 2022) — U.S. chemical manufacturers reported that major supply chain problems continued well into this year and have worsened in some cases. According to the results of a new survey released by the American Chemistry Council (ACC), transportation-related supply chain problems continued through the first half of this year and resulted in prolonged impacts on U.S. manufacturing operations.
For three consecutive quarters, companies reported that supply chain and freight transportation disruptions harmed their U.S. manufacturing operations. Over that same period companies reported having been negatively impacted by ongoing supply chain and freight transportation disruptions.
In addition to lost manufacturing and customer orders, companies reported that higher shipping rates were compounded by costly workarounds, including increased inventories, investing in additional rail cars, and committing additional resources to managing shipments.
ACC has conducted this survey three times (December 2021, March 2022, and July 2022) to gain a better understanding of supply chain trends and the scale of challenges faced across all transportation modes. Key findings of the survey focused on the second quarter of 2022 include:
While chemical producers have seen some improvement in other modes, companies that ship by rail have increasingly reported that railroad delays and service challenges are worse. Nearly all companies (93%) report conditions were either getting worse (46%) or were unchanged (48%).
With freight rail service continuing to decline, almost half of the companies (43%) added tank cars to their fleet because of freight rail service issues.
“Adding tank cars to address freight rail service problems was certainly a costly and less than ideal solution,” said Emily Sanchez, ACC’s Director of Economics and Data Analytics. “Such a large investment demonstrates a lack of confidence that freight rail problems will be solved anytime soon.”
Policymakers have adopted some concrete measures to help address the ongoing supply chain crisis, but they have not matched the scope and depth of the problem.
Specifically, ACC and other rail customers are calling on Congress to pass the Freight Rail Shipping Fair Market Act and the Surface Transportation Board to adopt regulatory reforms, including reciprocal switching. Furthermore, we urge Congress to pass legislation to improve truck capacity by increasing the Gross Vehicle Weight (GVW) on the Federal Interstates and the Federal Maritime Commission to implement key provisions of the newly adopted Ocean Shipping Reform Act.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) represents the leading companies engaged in the multibillion-dollar business of chemistry. ACC members apply the science of chemistry to make innovative products, technologies and services that make people's lives better, healthier and safer. ACC is committed to improved environmental, health, safety and security performance through Responsible Care®; common sense advocacy addressing major public policy issues; and health and environmental research and product testing. ACC members and chemistry companies are among the largest investors in research and development, and are advancing products, processes and technologies to address climate change, enhance air and water quality, and progress toward a more sustainable, circular economy.
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