96 container ships are waiting to hit a record high! "The tide is receding", the congestion in Los Angeles/Long Beach Port remains

96 container ships are waiting to hit a record high! "The tide is receding", the congestion in Los Angeles/Long Beach Port remains

On December 3, the Southern California Shipping Exchange announced the congestion in the Los Angeles/Long Beach Port after the revised statistical method: 40 container ships were waiting for berths within 40 miles of the port, and 56 container ships were waiting farther at sea. 96 ships hit a record high.

In early November, a working group composed of stakeholders from the maritime industry formulated new queuing rules: starting from November 16, container ships are encouraged to wait outside the designated safety and air quality area (SAQA), rather than at anchorages near the coast And rafting area. The new queuing system retains the queuing position of the ship based on the calculated arrival time (CTA) of the ship. The CTA is based on the assumed time of arrival of the ship from the last port of call calculated by the Pacific Maritime Monitoring System. The ship can then wait anywhere outside of SAQA, even on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

Under the new port queuing regulations implemented in the United States, due to the failure of the Southern California Shipping Exchange to follow up the statistical methods in time, the number of ships congested in the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach has shown a significant reduction on paper, from 70 to 80 at every turn to 40. Ship left and right, reduced almost in half.

Previously, Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, attributed the reduction in the number of congested ships to the introduction of the container "excess detention fee" policy in a press release. The data for 96 ships was released this time, and "the tide receded", and it was discovered that the argument of "port congestion alleviation" was only "wishful thinking".

In addition, in addition to the 96 ships waiting offshore on Friday, there are 31 container ships at berths. The actual total number of container ships has reached 127, which is close to the highest level in history. The total number of container ships waiting at berths or at sea continues to rise: an increase of 25% from the beginning of November, an increase of 41% from the beginning of October, and an increase of 79% from the beginning of September.

In fact, the latest data show that the relief of the overwhelmed supply chain in the United States will take at least a few months. According to data from Wabtec Port Optimizer in Los Angeles, as of last Friday, the average waiting time for ships was 20.8 days, nearly a week longer than a month ago. As for the backlog of containers at the port, as of December 2, the number of containers waiting for 0 to 8 days in Los Angeles dropped from 39,671 a week ago to 33,520. The number of containers waiting for 9 days or more decreased from a week ago. From 18,170 to 21,278.