Ed Denike, president SSA Containers, said that ocean carriers tell him that vessel congestion at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is likely to continue until March.
Denike, who spoke to the Propeller Club of Northern California via Zoom on January 12th, explained that congestion delays have seen as many as 40 ships waiting to be unloaded that amounts to a 7-8 wait per vessel.
Causes of Congestion
The primary reason is the large increase in container ships arriving at the two Southern California ports: “There has been an unprecedented increase in container ship traffic going to the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.”
The delays and back-ups of ships waiting to enter the two ports comes at a time when there has been a 10% reduction in longshore workers showing up for work related to the COVID virus and a parallel delay unloading import containers at California warehouses due to a reduction of workers also related to the virus.