- “We are seeing missed sailings on our TP1 and TP9 services,” said Maersk, adding that the ongoing congestion was “preventing it from sending more loaders to mitigate the capacity loss”.
- Hapag-Lloyd said that vessel wait times at New York were “running upwards of 20 days”, while the port of Savannah had 31 ships at anchor awaiting a berth as of last week.
- However, the lack of availability of chassis is a continued concern at the San Pedro Bay ports.
While US east coast ports continue to be overrun with import boxes, ocean carriers have issued a warning about Vancouver, Canada’s port of Vancouver being even more congested as reported by The Loadstar.
Import volumes
Canada’s biggest box port is experiencing a wave of record import volumes and when combined with intermodal delays due to forest fires in British Columbia, it has resulted in a big spike in container import dwell times.
Meanwhile, Maersk advised that yard utilisation at the port’s Centerm terminal had reached an unproductive 113%.
“This is causing additional delays for all volume on the terminal due to containers being buried,” said the carrier.
The extreme yard density resulted in vessels “spending 50% longer at berth”.
Maersk said that it was “working” with the DP World-managed facility “to load the longest dwelling containers daily” but dwell times are growing and carriers are skipping calls and are implementing port congestion surcharges.
Elsewhere, in North America carriers continue to warn of “severe congestion” at US east coast ports.
Yard fluidity
According to Hapag-Lloyd, vessel wait periods at New York were “running upwards of 20 days,” while as of last week, 31 ships were anchored in the port of Savannah waiting for a berth.
The airline said that at New York terminals, yard utilisation at Maher was a dismal 92%, while it was more tolerable at GCT Bayonne and APMT at 75 and 72%, respectively.
Hapag-Lloyd stated that “all terminals indicate strong berth utilisation” and that “discharge is metered in some situations to preserve yard fluidity.”
With a few notable exceptions, US east coast ports are all experiencing prolonged vessel wait times as container terminals adjust to the west coast’s coastal shift trend, helped by shippers who are rerouting cargo to avoid any potential consequences of the ongoing negotiations on the US west coast labour contract that has expired.
Chassis availability
Many ships leaving Asia for east coast ports via the Suez Canal or the Panama Canal are told to steam extremely slowly, but they are frequently forced to drogue for extended periods of time outside of the already occupied anchorages.
Wait times for ships arriving at Los Angeles and Long Beach terminals have decreased significantly as a result of the congestion on the Atlantic coast and are reported “down to three-four days” from the excessive waits of 30 days or more at the beginning of the year.
Additionally, average import cargo dwell durations at Los Angeles terminals have decreased to 4.4 days from a peak of 11 days or more.
However, the San Pedro Bay ports continue to be concerned about the lack of chassis availability.
Hapag-Lloyd stated that “the lack of chassis is having an impact on all types of moves, from local deliveries to terminal transfers to/from off-dock rail ramps.”
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Source: The Loadstar
