USA: The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles have collapsed

The ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are the two busiest ports in the United States.The two ports recorded double-digit year-on-year growth in throughput in October, both setting records.The port of Long Beach handled 806,603 containers in October, up 17.2% from a year earlier and breaking the record set a month ago.

According to the California Trucking Association and the Port Trucking Association, 10,000 to 15,000 containers have been stranded at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach alone, resulting in “near total paralysis” of cargo traffic at the ports.West Coast ports and Chicago are also struggling to cope with a surge in imports that has brought a flood of empty containers.

The port of Los Angeles is experiencing unprecedented traffic and congestion due to the continued boom in China-U.S. routes, strong growth in cargo volume, large influx of goods, and continued rebound in cargo volume.

Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said the port’s yards are currently stacked with containers full of cargo, and port workers are working overtime to process the containers.To reduce the spread of the virus, the port has temporarily reduced about a third of its dockworkers and port staff, making it difficult to replenish in time, meaning that loading and unloading of ships will be severely affected.

At the same time, there is a general shortage of equipment in the port, the problem of prolonged loading time, coupled with the serious container imbalance in the Pacific trade, resulting in a large number of imported containers in the United States port backlog, dock congestion, container turnover is not free, resulting in the goods transportation.

“The port of Los Angeles is currently experiencing a large influx of ships,” Said Gene Seroka. “Unplanned arrivals are creating a very difficult problem for us. The port is very congested, and the arrival time of ships may be affected.”

Some agencies expect congestion at US ports to continue through the first quarter of 2021 as cargo demand remains high.Bigger and more delays, just the beginning!