111 container ships are congested, and ships have been waiting for berthing for 45 days! Abandonment risk surges

Although the Biden government has ordered the port to operate 24 hours a day, the number of container ships waiting to dock and unload at the largest port in the United States is still a record high.

The US financial and financial information website Business Insider reported that according to data from the Marine Exchange of Southern California, the number of container ships waiting to be docked and unloaded at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Tuesday (November 9) reached 111 ships. This broke the previous record of 108 vessels reported on October 21. Currently, the Port of Los Angeles has 33,000 containers to be shipped out, and the Port of Long Beach has 27,000 containers to be shipped out, and the value of the goods is as high as 2.634 billion US dollars.

Due to the surge in consumer demand for goods, the two ports are still blocked despite the government's efforts to speed up the processing of containers. According to the latest data from the signal platform of the Port of Los Angeles on November 11, there are currently 38 container ships waiting for berths at the Los Angeles anchorage alone, and 7 ships waiting outside the port. The average waiting time for berth has surged to 16.9 days. A "Hyundai Prestige" container ship has been waiting for berth for 45 days. The volume continued to increase in the 46th week.

On October 13, local time, U.S. President Biden delivered a speech, announcing that the two largest ports in the United States, the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, will implement a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week work system to solve the problem of port cargo congestion and let the United States Local cargo trucks are able to deliver goods at night when traffic is relatively smooth, to cope with the tensions in the consumer goods supply chain.

The containers were stacked on the dock for several weeks to be unloaded, but the shortage of dock workers and truck drivers caused long delays in the unloading process. The blockage of these ports means that ships cannot dock at the docks and drop new cargo.

Shipping demand declined at the beginning of the new crown pandemic in 2020, and then surged at the end of the year, leading to a global supply chain crisis, leading to delays and congestion around the world.

The head of the Southern California Maritime Exchange previously stated that before the outbreak, the backlog of ships in these ports never exceeded 17. In the past few months, more than 100 ships have often been seen wandering around these ports waiting for berths. But now.... According to the new queuing process that took effect on November 16, the ship will be assigned a position in the arrival queue according to the departure time of the last port of call. They will be required to drop anchor 150 miles offshore, rather than close to the shore, waiting for an available berth.

Last month, the two ports stated that they would begin to impose a fine of 100 US dollars per container per day on shipping companies in the ports where the containers are stranded. Data will be collected from the beginning of November and will be sent to these shipping companies on November 15. The company charges a fine.

According to the announcement issued by the Port of Los Angeles on October 25, starting from November 1 this year, the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach will charge shipping companies a surcharge of US$100/container for trucks and rail transport overdue containers, and it will increase every day. US$100/case.

For truck-transported containers, if the stay at the terminal exceeds 8 days (including 8 days), the shipping company will be charged a surcharge; for rail-transported containers, more than 5 days (including 5 days), that is, the shipping company will be charged surcharge fee.

The port will start calculating the time of container stay from November 1st, and start charging calculation work from November 15th. Please note that the fine here is not 100 US dollars for each cabinet every day, but an increase of 100 US dollars every day. In extreme cases, the cabinet that is stranded for one month needs to pay a sky-high fine of 46,500 US dollars!

The shipping company has issued an announcement to "collect and pay", and all costs will be passed on to the shipper. Of course, the shipper does not want to deliver the goods, but the goods are held in the hands of the shipping company. If the fines are not paid, the goods cannot be picked up. If the goods are not picked up, the fines will continue to rise. There will be a new round of disputes-after all, no one wants to pay this money. Once encountered such a bad situation, the risk of customers abandoning goods increases sharply.

But experts say that these costs have little effect on solving the problem of port congestion. Corey Bertsch, vice president of global logistics company Slync.io, said: “The problem is not the lack of desire to move containers, but the lack of physical space.” He added: “These fines will only be passed on to the benefited shippers, who will accept it reluctantly. The fact that freight rates are rising. If possible, these containers will move, but this is a combined problem of warehouses, trucks, and labor."

With the advent of the traditional shopping season in the United States, out of stock will also bring about price increases, which will trigger a new round of supply chain crisis. Goldman Sachs research report pointed out that a large number of goods are stranded in the two major ports in the western United States, and port congestion and cargo backlog are estimated And rising transportation costs will continue at least until the middle of next year.

According to data released by the trade publication American Shipper, at the beginning of this month, nearly 60,000 containers at these ports have been stored there for more than 9 days and will therefore be eligible for fines.

The Atlantic published an analysis on the 7th that the current supply chain crisis facing the United States is the result of a combination of domestic and global factors. In addition to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. domestic road and rail freight system is outdated, the lack of sufficient warehouse workers and truck drivers to deliver deliveries, the cost of trans-Pacific ocean shipping has more than six times over the past year, and many other factors. This leads to the current supply chain dilemma and shortage of consumer goods in the United States.