According to the latest data from the official website of the Port of Los Angeles, there are 107 ships waiting for berth in the Southern California port, 84 of which are container ships, of which 37 container ships are waiting at anchor in the Port of Los Angeles.

In addition, the average waiting time for berth in the Port of Los Angeles is a new record, rising to 17.9 days, and the longest waiting time for the container ship "Bal Peace", waiting up to 53 days.

The average waiting time for ships at the Port of Los Angeles from Sept. 1 to Nov. 17

Due to severe congestion at the port, Ether Star has joined Wan Hai in transferring ships deployed on the Asia-US West route and suspending its expedited service to the Port of Los Angeles for at least seven weeks. EtherStar said it removed six vessels from the service, leaving six vessels on each of the two remaining Asia-U.S. West routes, both of which call at the Port of Los Angeles.

The last ship in a seven-ship service connecting Kaohsiung, Shanghai and Ningbo to Southern California left Kaohsiung on Nov. 5, according to a Sunday spotlight by shipping analysis and advisory firm Sea intelligence. The service, called ZX3, will restart on Dec. 23.

It is understood that Eystar provides services from Asia to Los Angeles three times a week: ZEX, ZX2 and ZX3. data from shipping data provider eeSea shows that in October, the average turnaround time (including waiting time at berth as well as unloading and loading time at berth) for ZEX, ZX2 and ZX3 services at the Port of Los Angeles was 28 days, with the cargo volume of ZX2 and ZX3 services being more severely affected by congestion. The impact of congestion is more severe.

A spokesperson for Etherstar said, "In light of the long delays on the West Coast (especially Los Angeles), we made changes to our service, including the e-commerce service to Los Angeles. Some ships were diverted to other routes where they were needed. Due to the current supply chain disruptions, we will continue to adjust our service to provide the best possible service to our customers."

Separately, Wan Hai is shifting vessels from its six Asia-US West routes to its intra-Asia routes. Three vessels are being redeployed to a new expedited service calling Ningbo, Nansha and New York.

Announcing its first three quarters results, Wan Hai said the situation is unlikely to improve even by early next year, with ships having to wait 28 days to berth in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

"The congestion is so severe that we are no longer able to provide reliable sailing schedules, so we are gradually withdrawing some vessels and putting them on intra-Asia routes to catch the peak periods for shipments to India and Vietnam." Wanhai's managing director said.

Maersk said it would not shift ships from west coast routes to east coast routes. Hapag-Lloyd said it sees little point in re-routing ships, despite adding extra loading vessels and reducing calls at West Coast ports.

"It doesn't make sense to try to move West Coast cargo through the U.S. Gulf of Mexico or the East Coast at this point because it would require more ships and would just shift the bottleneck elsewhere, except that intermodal will not change the current situation." A Hapag-Lloyd executive said.

As shippers look for ways to avoid congestion, some Asian freight forwarders are finding that cargo is shifting from California ports to other ports. "Rhenus is seeing a decrease in orders from the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach and an increase in orders from other discharge ports," said the general manager of key account management for Rhenus Greater China. The Port of Prince Rupert is one of the most popular ports of destination."

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)