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Toy Company Employees Discuss Supply Chain Disruptions; Parisian Drives And Bicycles Face Off Over Space; Centuries Old Sword Found Near Israel. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired October 20, 2021 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hi, I`m Carl Azuz. We hope your Wednesday is going well. We start today`s show with a number, 200,000. That`s an
estimate of how many large containers are floating on ships off the coast of southern California. It`s a record sized backlog for the Port of Los
Angeles along with the Port of Long Beach which is right next to it.
These two facilities bring in 40 percent of all the goods sent to the United States by sea. A port director says about two weeks` worth of work
is anchored off the California coast, and retailers say the timing is particularly bad with Christmas a little over two months away.
The holiday season is the biggest shopping period of the year, and economic analysts say Americans are eager to buy gifts. But with the supply of goods
so badly tangled at ports like the ones off California, some store shelves are empty. Mangers can`t say for sure when their next shipments will
arrive, and critics say the U.S. government`s efforts to try to get things moving aren`t enough.
Transporting goods is just one part of the supply chain problem. In some instances, factories haven`t been able to keep up with demand for the
things they make. Some have been closed on and off as cases of COVID have come and gone. Rules and restrictions have kept transport workers from
moving around freely, or limited the hours when they can do that.
And these challenges aren`t just effecting the U.S., as economies have bounced back from the shutdowns of the COVID pandemic, demand for goods and
commodities like oil has increased tremendously. There aren`t enough containers to put things in.
There aren`t enough ships to put them on, and the higher need for shipping has resulted in soaring costs to do it. Here`s how all of this is playing
out for a slot car company that`s worried about having enough toys to sell for Christmas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In this small New Jersey office, a Herculean attempt is underway. It`s the unofficial logistics center for
Carrera Revell, working desperately to get their toys into the U.S. in time for this holiday season.
FRANK TIESSEN, PRESIDENT OF CARRERA REVELL: OK, just giving you an update on the container situation at the moment.
YURKEVICH: President Frank Tiessen is manning the operation. Had you ever worked in logistics before?
TIESSEN: Only (inaudible), not directly.
YURKEVICH: Why did you have to get directly involved into logistics?
TIESSEN: Because of the global supply chain challenges that we are facing.
YURKEVICH: Cargo vessels, order numbers and arrival dates, all tracked with precision.
TIESSEN: Pretty much the first thing in the morning is really checking the backlog in -- in the warehouse.
YURKEVICH: Boxes of toys of the well-known slot car maker are stuck in their warehouses in China, waiting for a ride.
TIESSEN: We still have about 25-30 containers which are just missing, which will not be here.
YURKEVICH: That`s 30 percent of their holiday product. Just one of many companies dealing with the supply chain nightmare, with port congestion,
containers shipped in May are just arriving to Carrera Revell`s U.S. warehouse in Atlanta. Five months behind schedule.
ANGELA HIGGS, PRESIDENT OF FREIGHT FORWARDING FOR CARERRA REVELL: We have seen such a surge in the last 90 days.
YURKEVICH: Angela Higgs who runs the freight forwarding company for Carrera Revell, tasked with receiving the toys and getting them out to retailers as
quickly as possible.
HIGGS: It`s been one delay after another. And we, of course, have been pushing and pushing and pushing, but these delays are inevitable right now.
YURKEVICH: With nearly every U.S. port facing a backlog, the warehouse is using all of them, piecing together a working supply chain.
HIGGS: We`re just going everywhere we can, otherwise these goods are not going to get to the stores and I`m not going to have anyone missing out on
their toys this season.
YURKEVICH: To try to help with that, President Biden announced two major ports in California will move to operate 24/7, but for Tiessen the problem
now moves from the sea to the land. Does that help you guys?
TIESSEN: No, it doesn`t help. It just doesn`t alleviate the problem which than have once the containers are off board, there are not enough trucks.
There are not enough freight trains to move the containers in land.
YURKEVICH: Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, East Brunswick, New Jersey.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. In 1838, the first photograph of people was captured in what city? New York, New York, Paris, France, London, England,
or Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Louis Daguerre is believed to have captured the first photo of people in Paris, France.
And here it is, the Boulevard de Temple, Paris. The people we mentioned look like stick figures in the bottom left. Experts say they were probably
others moving around, but because it took several minutes back them to capture a picture, only those who were in place long enough showed up.
It`s believed one was having his shoes shined. Of course, there were no cars on the streets then. Those wouldn`t show up for decades. Pedestrians,
horses and carriages would have crisscrossed the city of light. And now, there`s some tension involving the modes of transportation used. Jim
Bittermann takes us to the French capital.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Out on the graceful avenues and boulevards of Paris, a battle has been looming. A century and a half after
Baron Haussmann plowed through large parts of the city to straighten out and broaden the narrow twisted streets, the Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, a
kind of anti-Haussmann has slowly been reducing the size of thoroughfares for years.
Part of her environmental plan to clean up air pollution and make the city friendly for bicycles and other two wheeled vehicles like electric
scooters. The upshot is a growing battle between the Parisians who love two-wheeled transportation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it could be a good idea, not to have cars in the -- in the (inaudible) centers.
BITTERMANN: And the motorists who are wed to four wheels.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE TRANSLATED: It`s a bit of a war of the bikes and scooters against cars.
BITTERMANN: High speed lanes along the Seine, which once whisks suburbanites to and from Paris each day, have been shut down to make room
for joggers, cycles and picnic tables. All part of a Paris Administration`s dream of ridding Paris as much as possible of cars.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She wants to transform the big space and today the big space is occupied by cars, and car drivers. We have the half of the public
space in Paris, which is dedicated to cars.
BITTERMANN: But it`s not just a repurposing of the public space, just as bad say motorists is the reduction of the speed limit on most streets in
town to 30 kilometers. That`s just over 18 miles an hour. The constant flashes of speed radar cameras bare witness to how many motorists just
can`t bring themselves to go that slow.
Drivers say the reduced speed limits are just another way to strangle the cars out of the city. The head of a motorist association claims commuters
have no alternatives to using their cars because public transportation is overcrowded and often unreliable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For those who live around Paris, it`s really unfair. They need their car and they can`t go to work. It`s something incredible.
BITTERMANN: And so while Paris has taken major action to rid the streets of automobiles and make the city more bicycle friendly, going green is not
proving to be politically very simple. Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: From struggles over the future, we are going back to the past. A scuba diver in Israel recently made an amazing discovery. He found a sword
with a three-foot-long blade along with stone and metal anchors and pottery fragments. Because the artifacts were relatively close to a Crusader
fortress, experts believe they date back to the Crusades which were carried out from 1096 to the late 1200s`.
An Israeli historian says it`s rare to find a sword in such perfect condition. It was probably buried under a deep layer of sand without a lot
of oxygen, and waves and currents apparently shifted that sand recently so the diver could see it. With all the rocks and shells on it, the sword
currently weighs more than 11 pounds, when it was new 900 years ago. It probably weighed between two to four pounds. Archeologists plan to look for
more artifacts in the area.
At first glance, this is a lot to take in.
(CROSSTALK)
AZUZ: If you guessed it has something to do with the balloon, you guessed right. This is the first ever Balloon World Cup. Competitors stumble around
a court that`s supposed to resemble a living room with a car in it, and hit the balloon in an upward direction but one that makes it hard for their
opponent to get it.
If you hit it in a place that he can`t reach, you win points. This involves competitors from 32 countries including the Americans who inspired it when
their home balloon game went viral online. So it`s really "blown up". Now even if it looks a little "ballooney" and predicting the winner is a "toss-
up", no one competes "ballone" and losing could really "deflate" one`s ego.
So hopefully a little "airtime" will "helium" enough to where he wants to "knock around" another day. Broadneck High School, shout out to you. Our
viewers in Annapolis, Maryland. Thank you for watching the show. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN.
END
