New Year, New Atmosphere! Shipping congestion remains unchanged

In 2021, Americans' concerns about holiday commodity shortages surged in October . In the second week of October, Google searches for " port congestion " increased 376% from the beginning of the year. Searches for " supply chain " peaked in the third week, up 194% from the beginning of last year .

In November, the search volume for these two terms on Google returned to normal. However, the supply chain pressure trend is exactly the opposite of the Google search trend . Although the holiday peak has passed, the congestion of container ships in ports is still increasing.

With the arrival of the New Year and the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday , US imports have reached a new high . Coupled with the arrival of Omicron and the shortage of dock workers, the number of container ships waiting for berths in Southern California has once again reached a new high.

Waiting ships triple near Southern California

According to data from the Southern California Marine Exchange, 105 container ships were waiting at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach last Thursday , setting a new record.

Of these, 16 were parked in port waters and 89 were hovering or sailing slowly in designated areas .   Ship positioning data from Traffic shows that most of these ships are concentrated near the Baja Peninsula.

Today, the number of container ships waiting at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is more than three times that of the same period last year , 11.6 times that of June 24 last year , and 31% more than that of October 24 last year .

The total capacity of vessels (including container ships and general cargo ships loaded with containers) waiting to berth at the Port of Los Angeles /Long Beach last Thursday was 815,958 twenty-foot equivalent units, according to Marine Exchange .

This figure is 6% higher than the total import volume of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in November , 9% higher than the 745,305 TEUs of capacity waiting for ships offshore at the end of November , and 28% higher than the 637,329 TEUs of capacity at the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach in early November .

Congestion is also happening at other ports

Not only are the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach congested , the Port of Oakland in Northern California has experienced severe congestion in the second quarter of 2021. As of last Friday, according to Marine   Traffic data shows that there are still eight container ships anchored in San Francisco Bay and one waiting in the Pacific Ocean .

In addition , four container ships are waiting in the Seattle/Tacoma area in the Pacific Northwest, and in the Gulf , five container ships are waiting off the coast of Houston .

On the East Coast, the queue for ships near Savannah, Georgia , was spreading northward . Six ships were waiting near Charleston, South Carolina, and another four were waiting near Virginia.

The ports of New York and New Jersey currently have the longest lines on the East Coast , according to Marine   Traffic data showed that as of last Friday , there were 11 container ships offshore, bringing the total number of vessels waiting for berths along the three US coastlines to 146 .

logistics

port

Congestion

Supply Chain

Shipping