When he woke on March 26 to the news that Baltimore’s Key Bridge had collapsed, Michael Haft, co-founder of Compass Coffee, dialed his chief operating officer.The collapse upended the supply chain for the D.C.-based roaster, which imports most of its beans through the Port of Baltimore. The crash is expected to cause delays and extra costs for many other businesses that rely on the port, which is responsible for about 52 million tons of imports and exports annually. The U.S.
In addition to the beans, Compass uses imported sugar to make simple syrups. Their 12-ounce coffee bean cans are made by a company that imports its steel through the port. Some vessels carrying beans were already at sea when the bridge collapsed, and shipping companies rerouted them to the Port of New York and New Jersey in the Newark area. That port typically handles about seven times as much cargo as Baltimore, a Port Authority spokeswoman said, and has been accepting many other shipments originally intended for Baltimore.
Now the company expects to pay $3,500 per container for the trip from Newark to D.C., plus an extra $10,000 on sugar in the next three months. Haft might also purchase more beans at a time to compensate for how long it takes to get the coffee to the warehouse.