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As cargo volumes continued to surge at the nation’s ports in January, the Biden administration on Feb. 23 announced plans to make $450 million available in new grant funding as part of the Department of Transportation’s Port Infrastructure Development Program.

As traditional brick-and-mortar and online retailers reported record holiday shopping numbers, experts say the nation’s transportation sector handled the crush of moving hundreds of millions of packages with relatively little difficulty.

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is awarding more than $241 million in grants to bolster U.S. ports, part of the Biden administration’s near-term plan to address America’s clogged supply chain with infrastructure improvements to speed the flow of goods.

A Louisiana port under construction aims to pull business from larger facilities — and attract ships traveling through the Panama Canal — with a distribution model focused on moving cargo to Midwest markets.

Severe weather disruptions hit Malaysia and the Philippines, leaving a trail of destruction among nations most prone to natural disasters.

On the East and West Coast and at ports along the Gulf of Mexico, container volumes have skyrocketed, with the Port of Los Angeles — the nation's largest — on track to easily surpass its all-time record set in 2018.

As the nation’s retailers and shoppers gear up for the holiday shopping sprint, two of the nation’s busiest ports, Los Angeles and Long Beach, say they are making progress clearing up the tens of thousands of shipping containers that have been backlogged at their facilities.

The Port of Los Angeles has suspended plans to charge shippers for containers that have been piling up at the facility, an announcement made the day that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg during a virtual visit pledged support from the Biden administration to help ease stress on the nation’s crowded supply chain.

BALTIMORE — The Biden administration is relying on infrastructure dollars to help fix the clogged ports and blanket the nation with internet access — but a series of initiatives rolled out on Nov. 9 show that the urgent pace might not be fast enough to address the immediate needs of an economy coping with a supply chain squeeze and a shift to remote work.

While some ports have announced a move to 24/7 operations, supply chain disruptions are expected to persist through 2022 and - with holiday season around the corner - what does this mean for the nation's retailers?