Congestion of California ports continue, with Oakland surpassing Los Angeles/Long Beach as the epicenter of the crowding with the peak shipping season quickly approaching.
Maersk warned in a customer advisory Los Angeles and Long Beach “remain strained with vessel wait times averaging between one to two weeks,” according to American Shipper.
But the shipping giant was reported as saying that, “the situation is even more dire at the Port of Oakland, where wait times now extend up to three weeks.”
West Coast port delays are having severe fallout for liner schedules and the congestion is equating to canceled voyages as ships can’t get back to Asia in time to load cargo.
Even as U.S. import demand soars, the effective capacity in the trans-Pacific trade is being sharply curtailed.
Maersk reports 20 percent of its capacity from Asia to the West Coast has been lost so far this year as a result of operationally induced “blank”, or canceled, sailings.
It now sees 16 percent of its Asia-West Coast capacity to be lost from now until the end of June and 13 percent to be lost from now until the end of August.
Current cancellations are now running at the same percentage that carriers intentionally blanked in Q2 2020 to compensate for the sudden collapse of import demand when U.S. businesses were shuttered by nationwide lockdowns.
The Port of Los Angeles has aired a goal of June 1 for “few if any ships” at anchor in San Pedro Bay, however, that deadline will not be met.
The daily number of ships in the bay is down from January, though numbers have not fallen any further. As of 2 weeks ago, there were still 20 ships at anchor in San Pedro Bay.
Maersk expects an early start to the peak season this year as retailers prepare for a strong back-to-school season that will likely blend into the end-of-year holiday peak season that typically starts in August.
Both Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd, say the problem at Oakland is a shortage of available longshore labor.