The number of vessels waiting outside the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has declined to 61.
The data comes from the latest Operations Report from the Port of Los Angeles and shows a significant improvement from PTI’s last update on 10 February, which saw 77 ships waiting outside the San Pedro Bay.
Shipping expert Lars Jensen commented on the news, saying: “The queue of vessels outside Los Angeles/Long Beach continues to decline and now stands at 61 vessels which is a clear improvement compared to the first month of 2022 where it was constantly above 100 vessels.”
“But at the same time, it should be noted that the queue of vessels outside Charleston is reaching new record high levels at 31 vessels as of Wednesday leading to a situation of not accepting gate-in of loaded exports Thursday and Friday mornings.
“As can be seen on vessel finder there are also large queues of vessels outside the other major US East and Gulf Coast ports. It thus appears that part of the reason for the improvement in California is not that the supply chain problem is being resolved – the problem is merely being shifted elsewhere.”
The Port of Charleston recently had a record-breaking January as a total of 226,515 TEU passed through its three container terminals, up 4.7 per cent compared to the same period in 2021.
The problem concerning long-dwelling containers on the docks of Los Angeles is also showing improvement.
In the port’s recent Import Container Dwell Report, the number of containers dwelling nine days or more since 24 October 2021 has declined 74 per cent.
PTI’s last update on 7 February reported a decline of 77 per cent, but this is still a considerable improvement over last year.
This will most likely lead to the “Container Dwell Fee” being postponed further.
