Cigar Companies Not Concerned by Dockworkers’ Strike (Update: Strike Over)

While many are concerned about the impact of the International Longshoremen’s Association’s strike that began on Tuesday, Oct. 1, many premium cigar companies are unconcerned. While tens of thousands of workers are striking at ports across the eastern and southeastern U.S., not all of them are on strike.

Update (Oct. 3, 2024) — An agreement has been reached and the strike has been suspended. This agreement will ensure that work continues through Jan. 15, 2025.

Notably, Miami isn’t entirely on strike. PortMiami, which has more than 175,000 employees, includes three different cargo operations: Port of Miami Terminal Operating Co., South Florida Container Terminal and Seaboard Marine. While two of the three are on strike, Seaboard Marine’s Miami terminal is not a union shop and remains open.

A notice on the company’s website explains the current status of its operations:

PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT SEABOARD MARINE’S TERMINAL AND VESSEL OPERATIONS WILL CONTINUE TO FULLY WORK AT PORTMIAMI, HOUSTON (JACINTOPORT TERMINAL) AND PHILADELPHIA (PENN TERMINALS). CARGO OPERATIONS HAVE STOPPED IN NEW ORLEANS, SAVANNAH, WILMINGTON, AND BROOKLYN.

ALL OF SEABOARD MARINE’S WAREHOUSE ACTIVITIES THROUGHOUT THE U.S. ARE AND WILL REMAIN, FULLY OPERATIONAL AS WELL.

Seaboard Marine is used by many cigar companies that transport cargo to Miami. Based on conversations halfwheel had with six large cigar companies on Tuesday, some companies that weren’t using Seaboard Marine seem to have quickly become aware that its terminal remains open and that ships from the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua—the two largest exporters of cigars to the U.S.—are unloaded by Seaboard.

“We are happy to reassure our retailer partners that the strike should not affect our cigars,” said Drew Newman, owner of J.C. Newman, in a statement to halfwheel. “We receive two containers of cigars weekly from Latin America and they are imported through a port that is unaffected by the strike.”

If the strike were to go on for weeks, the trickle-down effects would likely lead to congestion at the eastern terminals that remain open, but even then, cigar companies are probably in a better position than many other industries. First, many cigar companies are already accustomed to using airfreight for products. Many smaller companies—those unable to fill a container’s worth of product—ship their products primarily by air. Even larger companies that rely primarily on containers shipped via sea will use airfreight from time to time.

Furthermore, the U.S. cigar industry is likely over-supplied at this moment in time. Over the last 90 days, more and more manufacturers have spoke to halfwheel about the slowdown in sales and the uptick in inventory at both retailers and manufacturer’s warehouses.

This story was originally published on Oct. 1, 2024.