Rail freight in the United States is congested, with containers stranded for an average of 9.8 days!

Recently, due to serious congestion in ports such as Los Angeles, everyone's attention has been focused on ports and shipping. But in fact, the status of land transportation is not optimistic either.

According to Bloomberg, more than 100 container ships are waiting to enter U.S. ports from Southern California to Savannah, Georgia . An important reason for this situation is that freight at railway yards is also experiencing serious congestion .

According to shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd, the average container detention time at 11 major rail yards in the United States this month reached 9.8 days, which is much higher than 6.7 days in May and 5.9 days in February.

Container detention time at major rail yards in the United States, image from Hapag-Lloyd and Bloomberg

In Los Angeles, where congestion is worst this month , containers are waiting an average of nearly 16 days to be picked up , which explains why the largest number of container ships are waiting outside the Port of Los Angeles.

Container detention times also surged in Charleston , South Carolina, and Detroit . Data showed improvements in California , Long Beach and Kansas City.

Hapag-Lloyd said in an emailed note this week that some ports, such as Los Angeles and Long Beach , are extending their operating hours into the evenings and weekends to ease the congestion of full and empty containers in intermodal traffic . Hapag-Lloyd said delays at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach "will continue for the remainder of the year . "

Executives at packaged products giant General Mills noted on an earnings call Wednesday that in addition to strong demand for imports, a big part of the reason is a shortage of truck drivers to load and unload 20-foot and 40-foot containers.

“ The reality is that we’ve had hundreds of disruptions in our supply chain , and it’s changing every day , every week, ” said Jonathon Nudi, president of General Mills’ North American retail group. “Most of our discussions with retailers right now are around service and making sure we can deliver the products that consumers ultimately want.”

In short, the reasons for supply chain congestion come from many aspects, and solving these problems will not be a one-day task. We still need to be prepared for multiple situations.

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