Southern California: Dwell time reduction stalled

Congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach continues to worsen as container vessels numbers outside of the ports rise again and dwell time reduction for containers has stalled.

In a social media post from Shipping Analyst, Lars Jensen noted that 87 vessels were waiting in the waters outside of the twin ports in the morning of 16 November 2021, up from 82 the day before.

On top of this, data has shown that 47,700 containers at the ports have a dwell time of nine days or more. This shows a slight increase from the 46,700 containers on 11 November 2021.

This comes just one day after the ports delayed the consideration of their Container Dwell Fee directed at Ocean Carriers until 22 November 2021. The decision was made due to a decline of 26% in combined ageing cargo on the docks.

“Whilst clearly an improvement compared to end-October, the improvement rate seen in the first part November seems to have stalled despite the strong push from the impending new dwell charges,” commented Jensen.

The Port of Long Beach was part of another initiative to implement 24/7 operations to help alleviate some of the pressure currently facing the ports. However, in a North American update, Hapag-Lloyd revealed the move “was not successful to implement a full program.”

https://www.porttechnology.org/news/southern-california-dwell-time-reduction-stalled/