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We tend to focus on not getting shipments from the mainland - new pressure to reopen from Young Brothers - citing a dire financial situation. Imagine no interisland shipping.
Inter-island shipping company Young Brothers says it’s facing an “extremely dire” financial situation because of significant drops in cargo volumes amid the COVID-19 pandemic and is asking the state and the Public Utilities Commission for help to stay afloat.
Without assistance, the company said the Neighbor Islands might see some shipping disruptions.
Young Brothers said it’s seen a 30% drop in cargo volumes since the pandemic began. That’s translated into an $8 million loss through April. By the end of the year, that figure is expected to more than triple.
In a letter filed with the PUC on Tuesday, Young Brothers said its financial situation was “extremely dire” and indicated it will no longer get cash infusions from its parent company starting June 1. The company is asking the state for $25 million in federal stimulus funds to “sustain" operations through December.
Seeing that I don't see states getting bailed out by the federal government (whether Trump wins reelection or not), this is yet another sign that Hawaii's aggressive efforts to keep covid out of the islands are going to cause irreparable (or long lasting, at least) financial harm.
Simpy put, while well-intentioned, the state seems to have gone too far with its efforts. Yes, the health of your people is important, but officials should have been paying attention to their people's and states' financial health as well, which also impacts physical and mental health in many ways. The two concepts are inherently linked.
And while Hawaii has had a low covid infection and death rate due to its efforts, other states on the mainland that have not shut down as aggressively (and that can't as they aren't an island in the middle of the Pacific) have done fairly well also.
Last edited by prospectheightsresident; 05-26-2020 at 08:43 PM..
Reduction in barge shipments are highly problematic to Big Island farmers who have product that now has to be stored for extra days every week.
It appears to me that the Hawaii public is being overly distracted with Graduation Celebrations (notwithstanding how important as our grads are) and Food Drives and aren't paying attention to the crisis looming straight ahead....
state seems too busy taking delight in engaging in power plays between the governor and mayors and magnanimously slowly releasing restrictions, whole not even creating any sort of projection for the travel bans. State is too busy paying state workers 100% of pay for being "idle". Lawmakers too busy playing in recess for the next few weeks, despite not even working for much of march through may, etc etc. They are all much too busy to support peasant private sector workers and businesses.
It'll be interesting to see how this pans out - my contact at the State first reaction was 1) we don't have the money and 2) we don't bail out private companies - the Fed does that.
I suspect a cessation of operations by Young Brothers would hit the Big Island especially hard with shipping of beef and ag.
The parent of Young Brothers also owns Aloha Air Cargo - they could be the next to fold.
Isn't Young Brothers essentially a monopoly? There's no other surface cargo transport between the islands is there? Not everything can be flown between islands.
I think there's a car transport other than Young Brothers, but they don't do general freight, do they? I hope Aloha Air Cargo survives, we use their services and none of the other airlines will fly our product.
Isn't Young Brothers essentially a monopoly? There's no other surface cargo transport between the islands is there? Not everything can be flown between islands.
Yes, they are regulated just like a utility. They are basically telling the State right now - either give us $25 million or give us the 35% rate hike we've asked for. Pick your poison.
Well, the 35% hike is better than no services, although it's still a big bite in the okole. Might make more folks buy local produce, too.
I suspect we will start seeing really local goods now that inter-island shipping will most likely be going up a significant amount. Hawaii Island produces quite a bit and a lot of it gets exported to the other islands. I don't think there's any other USDA slaughterhouses in the state, is there?
Well, the 35% hike is better than no services, although it's still a big bite in the okole. Might make more folks buy local produce, too.
I suspect we will start seeing really local goods now that inter-island shipping will most likely be going up a significant amount. Hawaii Island produces quite a bit and a lot of it gets exported to the other islands. I don't think there's any other USDA slaughterhouses in the state, is there?
It'll devastate the ag and meat industry in Hawaii - not grow it. Oahu is the biggest market of Big Island goods - the appetite to pay for goods that are already more expensive than mainland won't be sustained.
“However, we do feel that a rate increase of this magnitude is pretty hard for ranchers to bear,” Wood said. “We already have to own … the containers that we ship in, so this kind of rate increase is pretty significant in terms of our ability to do business and ship cattle between the islands.”
Randy Cabral, president of Hawaii Farm Bureau, said the steep hike, if granted, “will hurt agriculture and make it difficult to reach the state’s goal of doubling food production.”
“Farmers and ranchers have thin profit margins and many are totally dependent on YB to deliver their products to Oahu, the population center and our major market. And they are dependent on YB to bring necessary inputs to them for their farms, unlike their peers on the mainland who can choose trucks and trains to deliver products,” Cabral said.
In other states, the government builds and maintains highways, at taxpayer expense, to connect its cities to each other. This is seen as an essential government service. And that's what should be done here, so that interisland freight mobility isn't held hostage to the fortunes of a private company.
No, I am not suggesting that the government build actual physical highways between the islands. Instead, I'm suggesting that Hawaii should take a page from Alaska's playbook. That state operates and maintains the Alaska Marine Highway, a system of ferries that transport people, cargo, and vehicles between the islands and coastal communities in the southern part of the state.
It's not by accident that the word "Highway" is part of the system's name. It's intended to serve as a highway, and in fact receives government highway funding. In a similar vein, the ferry crossing between Cape May, NJ and Lewes, DE is considered to be part of U.S. Highway 9 and is operated by a bi-state government agency.
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