What's behind the congestion at U.S. ports?

In 2021, container volume at the Port of Los Angeles, including imported goods such as furniture and apparel, surged to a record 10.6 million TEUs, almost 16% higher than the previous year.

TEU, or twenty-foot equivalent unit, is the industry standard for measuring the cargo capacity of ships and terminals. A 20-foot container can hold about 400 flat-screen TVs.

But with that volume comes a range of congestion , affecting everything from retail stores and large manufacturers to port-side communities .

As of February 16, there were more than 70 container ships drifting, slow-sailing or waiting outside the Port of Los Angeles. Meanwhile, there were nearly 62,000 empty containers at the port’s docks and off-dock warehouses.

" Over the past two years , with the economy ramping up and then easing back down , ports are like this, factories are like this , workers are getting sick, truck drivers are out of work, and all of these problems are piling up and throwing our supply chain out of balance ," said Scott Lincicombe, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

Port congestion also has an impact on the health of surrounding communities.

As ships idled near ports in San Pedro Bay in October, pollution increased to roughly the equivalent of emissions from 5.8 million passenger cars.

Trucks, trains and dock equipment are another source of pollution. According to the Clean Air Coalition, freight transportation has been linked to higher rates of asthma, cancer and other illnesses.

" Ports are a huge economic hub and we can't deny their global importance , but they have consequences that affect people's health, quality of life and the amount of time they spend living," said Chris Chavez, deputy policy director at the Clean Air Alliance.

And it has a worldwide impact, too. According to Sea-Intelligence, a Copenhagen-based maritime data company , 11.5% of global shipping capacity was actually offline in November because ships were waiting in queues.

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Port congestion