Factors such as insufficient terminal space, labor constraints, and inland transportation congestion have led to a continuous decline in container turnover efficiency at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The average residence time of containers unloaded from ships at the terminals has extended to six days.
In addition, the number of ships waiting to be berthed outside the port is also constantly setting new records. To ease congestion, the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach announced extended operating hours.
Outside the Port of Long Beach, Los Angeles
Over 430,000 TEU cargo awaits unloading
According to data from the Southern California Maritime Exchange on the 21st, there are 95 ships waiting in line for berths at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the two largest maritime gateways in the United States. Of the 95 ships lined up, 70 are container ships. Notably, 37 ships (including 29 container ships) were forced to drift in the Pacific.
During this process, the ship often drifts for miles before returning to its original position, often consuming large amounts of fuel. Ships at the back of the queue now wait up to three weeks for berths to open.
There were 70 container ships queuing up outside the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Monday, with a total capacity of 432,909TEU. To put this huge number into perspective, this is more import containers than the Port of Long Beach handled in August, and roughly equivalent to the import container handling volume of the Port of Savannah in two months.
The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach total imported container volumes in August were 893,118 teu, assuming ships waiting offshore are actually full, capacity serves as a proxy for cargo volume, and terminals are able If ships are processed at the same rate as in August, then the ships in the anchorage and drifting areas can be completely processed only if no ships arrive within the next 14 days.
Søren Toft, CEO of Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), the world’s second largest liner company, spoke about the current situation in a keynote speech at London International Shipping Week last week. Extreme supply chain crisis, discussed A huge increase in demand in the United States, with imports of goods from Asia into the United States increasing by 33% in the first seven months of this year.
According to data from the Port of Los Angeles, cargo volume continued to grow steadily in the 39th and 40th weeks of the two weeks approaching the National Day Golden Week, and relief is still not optimistic!
Currently, there are 32 container ships waiting for berths at the Los Angeles anchorage alone, and 12 ships waiting outside the port. A total of 32 container ships are waiting for berths at the Los Angeles anchorage. Reaching 48 ships, the average waiting time for berthing increased from 8.5 days a week ago to 9.0 days, with the longest waiting time reaching 22 days.
This “congestion” phenomenon has led to shortages of goods and logistics delays in many places, further affecting the landside supply chain.
Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach extends operating hours
As concerns about supply chain disruptions continue to grow, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach recently issued a joint statement after consulting with multiple supply chain stakeholders and the U.S. Department of Transportation.
The Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach announced their latest initiative: they will extend the operating hours of the truck gate so that trucks can pick up and unload boxes at night and on weekends so that they can be transported more quickly. Cargo is shipped out of the port – Dozens of container ships are waiting to unload in San Pedro Bay near the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero announced that the Port of Long Beach will take the first step toward achieving 24-hour operations by maximizing nighttime operations. Ideally, these measures would have to extend to warehouses and rail companies to comprehensively address traffic congestion along the entire chain.
Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, announced that the Port of Los Angeles will extend gate opening hours on weekends and is piloting a “Los Angeles Freight Speedup” program to improve efficiency and ensure Meet freight needs.
In addition, both ports called on marine terminal operators, encouraging them to utilize all available gate opening hours, especially at night, to reduce congestion and Maximize cargo throughput.
The two ports will work with the trucking community to help trucking companies understand when gates are open and how to move cargo during off-peak hours.
However, after announcing the gate delay plan, some people said that the two ports have not yet explained how and when this plan will be implemented port-wide. “We haven’t seen any details yet,” said the CEO of the Port Trucking Association. “This is more of a statement of what they plan to do.”
In addition, the U.S. The government is also growing increasingly uneasy about the deteriorating situation. The White House has established a “Supply Chain Disruption Task Force” to alleviate bottlenecks and speed up the transportation of goods to consumers while expanding export opportunities for American companies. The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach work closely with it.
Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said: “We are grateful to Biden Harbin.The government’s response to the unprecedented global supply chain disruption faced by the San Pedro Bay port complex. ”</p
