Stupid question, why isn’t simple capitalism working on the port? This solution while admirable, reminds me of the USSR trying to set the price of bread.
Simple capitalism is what causes the problem. The capitalist looks at all the buffers and safeguards and regulation of a system and thinks that could all be thrown out for higher profits. That appears to work, until it stops working. It is the same reason Texas has cheap electricity until suddenly without warning they have no electricity.
Planning and regulation and bureaucracy prevent these problems, at the cost of slightly higher prices due to the system not being really 'optimal' in the steady state.