West Coast Ports: Ships Still Backed Up at LA-LB
On Thursday, six container ships were anchored outside the ports; up from Wednesday (5) and down from (8) on Tuesday.
The container ship traffic and the volume at the LA-Long Beach port complex has been moderately high impacting the congestion. Other reasons for the congestion include the increasing sizes of ships which require longer times being docked, as well as the scarcity of chassis, and shortage of trucks and drivers; recently the slowdown by members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.
Congestion has been worse
Though the current congestion is serious, it has been worse.
From JOC:
Wong said that the worst congestion in the last two decades was likely in 2004, when Union Pacific was not adequately staffed to handle the peak season that year, and in 2002, when the Pacific Maritime Association locked out International Longshore and Warehouse Union dockworkers for 10 days.
“This is not 2002 or 2004,” Wong said. “In 2004, ships were backed up halfway down to San Diego, like 50 miles down the coast. It was way worse than this current congestion.”
Port of Prince Rupert
Due to the congestion affecting the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, a new surge of diversions are being created causing shippers to move to other ports.
The Prince Rupert Port Authority (in Canada) said that their carriers have advised them to expect an increased volume in the next few weeks.
“It’s not to the extent that we saw this summer,” he said, referring to the July surge of diversions by shippers seeking to avoid potential trouble on the West Coast associated with longshore labor negotiations.
“We have four trains of additional capacity ready to go.” he said, noting that equals 2,600 TEUs of additional rail capacity, with rail being the only way to move cargo into our out of Prince Rupert. He said current terminal dwell times are in the two to three-day range.
Leave a Reply