General

According to foreign media reports, last Saturday, about 70 container ships loaded with cargo berthed at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, or drifted away from the ports, causing serious congestion. The American magazine American Shipper analyzed data from the Southern California Maritime Exchange, which accurately illustrated the specific distribution of ships and the amount of cargo they carried.

The total capacity of the 70 container ships in line is 432,909 TEUs. This huge number even exceeds the number of inbound containers handled by the Port of Long Beach throughout August.

Throughput is a good volume indicator. The total import throughput of Los Angeles and Long Beach in August was 893,118 TEUs. Assuming that the ships waiting in the offshore are full, and the dock can handle the ships at the speed of August, then only if no ships arrive for 14 consecutive days, the anchorage and the wandering area can be completely cleared.

However, this situation will never happen, and there is no sign of a decrease in the number of ships arriving. The ship positioning data of Ocean Transportation confirms that there is still a steady stream of container ships crossing the Pacific Ocean to Los Angeles.

How long does it take for a ship to wait for a berth?

The Port of Los Angeles announced the average waiting time for ships at berths. Last Tuesday, this number rose to 9 days (reaching the highest level in history calculated on a 30-day rolling average).

In order to estimate the amount of capacity and the waiting time, American shippers looked at the total amount of TEU calculated by the date of arrival.

In the seven days as of Monday, a total of 36 ships with a total deadweight of 230,803 TEUs arrived in the port waters. This accounts for 54% of the total offshore TEU capacity. One to two weeks before Monday, 27 ships with a total capacity of 176,892 TEUs arrived. The remaining ships arrived at the end of August and early September.

The arriving ships are getting smaller and smaller

In the course of this year's congestion crisis, a notable change is that the average capacity of ships docking in Los Angeles/Long Beach has dropped, which means that the terminal can handle more ships with the same throughput.

In the current peak season, the newly launched trans-Pacific route has seen more and smaller ships, reducing the average size. The main reason is: in recent months, there have been few larger container ships available for sale or lease; operators have to increase capacity through smaller vessels, even if this means short-term charters at high daily rates.

As of last Monday, there were 17 ships with more than 10,000 TEU at anchor or drifting, accounting for only 24% of the total. The average capacity of all ships in the queue dropped to 6,184 TEU, which was 24% lower than the average ship size on February 1 this year.

To some extent, the change in ship size helps alleviate the congestion in the port. However, the news only focuses on the total number of ships waiting for berths. Today, it has increased from 40 ships in February to around 70 at present, a growth rate of up to 75%. At the same time, due to the continuous shrinking of the number of ships in line, the total capacity of ships has only increased by 34% in the same time period.

Congestion in the railway yard is also an important reason

What is the underlying cause of port congestion? We need to pay attention to another important freight hub-railway yard.

Due to the accumulation of containers, the US railroad yard is becoming congested. According to statistics from Hapag-Lloyd AG, the world's fifth-largest container shipping company, the average residence time of containers in 11 major railway warehouses this month reached 9.8 days. This is higher than 6.7 days in May and 5.9 days in February.

Los Angeles bears the brunt. There, it takes an average of nearly 16 days for the container to be taken away. In Charleston and Detroit, South Carolina, flight delays are also increasing. However, data shows that conditions in Long Beach, California and Kansas City have improved.

Hapag-Lloyd said in an e-mail report this week that in order to ease the congestion of the multimodal terminal, the port management extended the business hours to the evening, and it would also be open on weekends. At the same time, they expect the delays at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to continue until the end of this year.