---
title: "Why a Cargo Ship Full of 2,000 Nissans Floated Offshore for Days"
description: "\"This is different from anything we've seen before. Everyone is full to the brim.\""
date: "2020-05-04"
modified: "2020-05-04"
authors:
  - name: "Patrick George"
    job_title: "Contributor"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/patrick-george"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/33290/why-a-cargo-ship-full-of-2000-nissans-floated-offshore-for-days"
categories:
  - "News"
  - "News by Brand"
  - "Nissan News"
tags:
  - "Nissan"
---

# Why a Cargo Ship Full of 2,000 Nissans Floated Offshore for Days

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2020/05/top1.jpg>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com\</em\>*

Just how bad is the new car market? Bad enough that a cargo ship full of 2,000 Nissans and Infinitis had to float off the coast of Los Angeles for nearly a week, because the port was already crammed full of other unsold new cars and there was no room to unload them.

In other words: very bad.

In what [*Bloomberg*](<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-01/suvs-get-parked-in-the-ocean-and-reveal-scope-of-u-s-car-glut>) called an "unprecedented logjam," the Nissan Motor Car Carrier Company cargo ship *Jupiter Spirit* arrived at the Port of Los Angeles on April 24 carrying scores of new Armadas, Rogues, and Infiniti sedans from Japan. Normally, unloading those cars would take about half a day.

Not so this time, the news service reported. Thanks to [the coronavirus pandemic's impact on new vehicle sales](<https://www.thedrive.com/news/32877/ford-wants-a-repeat-of-cash-for-clunkers-as-new-car-sales-tank>), the port was already overflowing with other cars, leaving the *Jupiter Spirit* to float offshore its cargo could finally be unloaded on April 29.

As that story notes, this is extremely unusual. The auto industry is a "[just in time" business](<https://www.investopedia.com/terms/j/jit.asp>), meaning it has a tightly scheduled supply chain that runs on efficiency to reduce wait times and inventory costs. Ships full of new cars typically don't float offshore for days at a time. But in this economy, the new cars had nowhere to go. Dealers can't move their new cars and fleet companies are operating at severely reduced levels.

From that story:

*“Dealers aren’t really accepting cars and fleet sales are down because rental-car and fleet operators aren’t taking delivery either,” said John Felitto, a senior vice president for the U.S. unit of Norwegian shipping company Wallenius Wilhelmsen. “This is different from anything we’ve seen before. Everyone is full to the brim.”*

As [*Car and Driver*](<https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a32352892/2000-nissan-infiniti-vehicles-on-ship/>) noted Sunday, the *Jupiter Spirit* is currently headed up the West Coast. But future logjams are expected at various ports this year as new car demand is expected to stay weak amid the pandemic. Hyundai ramped [up production in March](<https://www.autoblog.com/2020/04/22/hyundai-cars-sitting-in-port-us-sales/>) at home in South Korea as that country showed early signs of economic recovery, but then its cars too were stuck sitting in U.S. ports with nowhere to go.

[As we've reported before](<https://www.thedrive.com/tech/33174/the-auto-industry-wants-to-restart-in-may-its-a-lot-more-complicated-than-that>), getting the global auto industry up to speed again won't be as simple as sending workers back into factories and flipping a switch.

## Author
Patrick George was the Editorial Director of Recurrent Ventures’ automotive and military websites prior to leaving the company full-time in 2022. He oversaw the news and commerce editorial teams for The Drive, Task & Purpose, The War Zone and Car Bibles.

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/bypatrickgeorge/>)  
[Twitter](<https://twitter.com/bypatrickgeorge>)