Every day, the bottleneck at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach—where nearly 40% of all shipping containers that pass through the US each year—seems to worsen. The back up started late last year, and as of October 2021, there is a backlog of 80 container ships waiting off of the coast to unload. It's already a record, and more ships are already on the way from Asia.

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach aren't alone. Ports from Vancouver, Canada to Vladivostok, Russia are also seeing record volumes from Asia, including other US ports like Houston and Oakland. The bottleneck has sparked fears that shelves will remain empty for Christmas or even that consumers won't be able to get essential goods. In the CRE industry, concern is focused on the economic and retail sale impact—and how that will once again affect property owners still recovering from cash flow issues over the last year.

At the GlobeSt.com Net Lease conference, JLL chief economist Ryan Severino was actually unconcerned by the bottleneck, and managed to find the silver lining. According to Severino, there is a port backlog because the demand side of the economy has roared back so quickly and the supply side is having trouble keeping up. "It's a not-so-great byproduct of a good [economic] development," he said, noting that this event is not a redeux of the 1970s when supply contracted.