Before then, cargo ships rarely waited to unload. These are container freight rates for May 1, 2022 according to theFreightos Baltic Index: Ripples from the war in Ukraine and ongoing coronavirus outbreaks are disrupting air cargo especially Asia-Europe operations and putting pressure on air cargo rates. Current numbers are far below the all-time high of 109 ships waiting on Jan. 9. The China-East Coast spot index has dropped only 10%. How will omicron and future variants impact U.S. consumer demand as well as effective shipping capacity and factory output? }); The ships are moving to ports outside of CA because they know a massive truck shortage is in the works due to AB5. Marine Exchange of Southern California, accessed Sept. 21. Total container ships backed up was 96 at noon, the Marine Exchanged announced Thursday. Shipping-industry officials point to positive signs that constraints on moving goods are easing. With a60% annual increase in sales by third party sellerson Amazons marketplace last year, the boom in e-commerce continues. Elsewhere in the United States, ports in New York, New Jersey, Georgia, and Texas have faced similar challenges, according to news reports. Current numbers are far below the all-time high of 109 ships waiting on Jan. 9. Thats well below a short-lived spike to 90,397 in late November, but its same number of empties as in late February. We were thrown a curveball that, even in any of our wildest dreams, we never predicted that these kinds of things would be happening with this kind of volume, said Chase. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images) As of Wednesday, the ship logjam is at 101, with another 63 on the way. Climbing oil prices translate directly to higher diesel prices. Kip Louttit, executive director of theMarine Exchange of Southern California, told USA TODAY that, as of Sept. 21,there were 153ships of all types at both the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Notable events include an amphibious assault vehicle that sank off San Clemente Island in 2020, drowning nine service members. How Did Taiwan Replace Silicon Valley as the Chip Manufacturing Capital? According to data cited by trade outlet American Shipper, the actual tally of ships waiting outside L.A. and Long Beach hit an all-time high of 96 in early December, with 56 of those waiting . This is a drastic change since the start of the year, and indeed through most of 2021, when current prices were at a premium to forward contract prices. googletag.enableServices(); This backlog is expected to continue in 2022 due to the ports inability to process all inbound ships. Gene Seroka, This was completely industry-driven, and we have to solve our own problem and not wait for an incident to happen before we take action., CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER. On Tuesday . Specialists at Denmark-based marine consulting firm Sea-Intelligence ApS say that based on previous ship backups, it could take eight or nine months to clear the ship backlog once operations run more efficiently. At the Port of Long Beach, there were still 14,877 containers dwelling nine days or more as of Monday. The biggest queues now are off New York/New Jersey 17 container ships and Savannah, Georgia, where 25 vessels are waiting. Overall, the completion of Fireboat Station 20 is a significant development for the Long Beach community, as it will enhance the citys ability to respond to emergencies on the water and ensure the safety of those who live and work in the surrounding areas. Eight months on, negotiations for a new labor contract impacting operations at ports across the West Coast continue with no hint of . "Dozens of cargo ships anchored off the coasts of Los Angeles and New York face shocking wait . Nearly 160 ships on Friday are reportedly waiting outside Long Beach and Los Angeles port complexto unload goods, Bloomberg reported. Moller-Maersk AS, this week said he expects supply-chain bottlenecks to continue at least until June. When the Los Angeles/Long Beach queue peaked in January, the North American total was around 150. googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); googletag.enableServices(); The claim: There are more than 1,000 cargo ships off the coast of California that are not allowed to dock or unload. The supply chain bottleneck continues rising. Dozens of container ships were anchored or adrift off the coast because of a backup in the ports, not because they were banned from entering in some fashion. This results in significant time and cost savings for railway operators and ultimately benefits consumers as well. He made an assumption for theport congestionmay become thebiggest variable affectingthe shipping industry this year. Last year, the queue numbers in Los Angeles/Long Beach fell through the third week of June, then reversed, heading back up thereafter. PHONE: 866-433-7729 (or 833-240-7729) MAILING: P.O. Although conditions off the shores of Southern California are approaching pre-COVID normality, conditions at the terminals are not. ", "The ships are waiting at anchor or adrift because there is a backup in the port because there is no room for more ships in the port,"Louttitsaid. Problems at California Ports. Analysts at Citi Research noted in a Feb. 9 report that ocean carriers canceled 14% of sailings for February, up from 8% for the same month last year. No one is taking a victory lap, said Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles. Crews aboard ships waiting to be called into shore must agree not to disembark in foreign countries or they lose their place in line. Now more than ever, it is very important to put focus on cleaning onboard to enforce general cleanliness. Unable to repay their employer, drivers essentially work for free, never able to earn much money. This image record originally appeared on the Earth Observatory. Chase said that a busy month for Los Angeles used to be when it handled about 800,000 containers. Never has container shipping begun a year on such a high. Although the ship backup is the smallest it has been since Nov. 11, congestion remains severe by historical standards. The lockdown is expected to be lifted mid-May at the earliest and continues to contribute towidespread disruption. Sixty-one vessels were anchored offshore on Thursday waiting to unload cargo at the Port of Los Angeles . The teams 2022 estimates of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd are more than twice the consensus average. NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. These costs could be passed down to shippers, making international shipping even more expensive. Regrettably, when the lockdown restrictions were eased in China, many countries in the world responded with their lockdown, preventing normal import and export. It forecasts that Maersks 2022 EBITDA will be $34.6 billion, up 43% from 2021, and that Hapag-Lloyds 2022 EBITDA will be $20.4 billion, up 56% from last year. Heres the latest on whats going on at The Port of Long Beach: The ports of LA and Long Beach have returned to normal operations, due to efforts made by the ports to reduce congestion, along with lowered consumer demand for goods. Soren Skou, Jason Miller, associate professor of supply chain management at Michigan State Universitys Eli Broad College of Business, pointed out that retail sales were abnormally strong in 2021. As the lockdown in Shanghai stretches on and restrictions increase in Beijing and elsewhere the availability of exports is down significantly. Of the total, 31,150 were waiting to load on railcars. Ship backlogs at ports are not limited to Los Angeles. There has been a demand for shipping containers since the advent of the covid epidemic. Delaying the delivery of units to their final market only contributes to the container shortage. The new station will provide a permanent home for the Fireboat Protector, ensuring that it can be deployed quickly and efficiently in the event of an emergency. An all-time high of 56 cargo ships are stuck waiting off the California coast, as shipping ports hit their 4th record backup in three weeks. The ever increasing prices of fossil fuels has also made it more costly to ship items at all levels. Sanctions and COVID lockdowns are currently the main drivers of the capacity and demand. The country's busiest port complex of Los Angeles and Long Beach is facing crippling delays, with . However, global airline volumes have plunged during the pandemic, resulting in even more things being delivered through maritime freight. The drivers who are not firedsometimes end up owing money to their employers and are unable to get out from under the debt. Scuba Certification; Private Scuba Lessons; Scuba Refresher for Certified Divers; Try Scuba Diving; Enriched Air Diver (Nitrox) how many ships are waiting to unload in seattle. He expects we still start to see a strong regression towards the long-term trend line [for retail sales] in 2022 with no additional stimulus, student loan deferrals ending and the likely shift of COVID-19 to an endemic disease., Retail inventory-to-sales ratios are historically low, but Miller noted that this ratio was declining pre-COVID and inventories are now far above their historical trend line. Leaders of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach said the reduction in volume along with an increase in worker availability should put them in a good position for the peak holiday shipping season, which they expect will begin earlier than usual this year. The lengthy backup of container ships waiting to unload in Southern California is shrinking, the first sign in three months of an easing of U.S. supply-chain congestion at the nations busiest container port complex. It got too crowded. According to the latest express fromZheng Zhenmao, the chairman ofYang Ming Marine Transport Corporation, he is optimistic about the performance of the container shipping market in 2022. Backlog of cargo ships at southern California ports reaches an all-time high . The shortage of ships and containers is difficult to solve in the short term. Greg Miller covers maritime for FreightWaves and American Shipper. Such cargo ship gridlock, as tracked by the Marine Exchange of Southern California, was unheard of before the . Additionally, Leasing businesses are unwilling to sell their stock since container distribution is not as fast as before. That doesnt look like it will be happening anytime soon., At the very far end of the bullishness spectrum is the Deutsche Bank team led by U.K.-based analyst Andy Chu. The backup of ships has grown since last week, when 60 ships were waiting to unload. The latest shipping headache has more than 60 ships sitting idle off of the coast of Southern California, reports the Wall Street Journal. They are stacking up. If the same pattern emerges for longshoremen and other workers essential to supply chains, congestion could worsen. He currently resides in Manhattan with his wife and two Shih Tzus. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8, Appeared in the February 11, 2022, print edition as 'Traffic Jam at Southern California Ports Eases. At this time last year, there were 48 container vessels waiting offshore, almost six times more than there are now. As of Wednesday, there were 28 ships waiting.