Backlog of Container Ships Cleared off The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach

California shipping officials have reportedly announced that a 25-month-long backlog of container ships at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has ended. On Tuesday, not a single container ship was waiting around the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. This is the first time since October 2020 that the number of ships in line has dropped to zero.

After 25 months of working with the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA), the container ship congestion at both ports has ended and it's time to move to a different phase of operations, said Kip Louttit, executive director of the Southern California Maritime Exchange, in a statement.

As consumer demand surges, the two ports begin to fall into congestion in October 2020. By February 2021, the backlog increased to 42 ships, then dropped to nine a few months later. But as the peak shipping season approached, the backlog grew steadily until the end of last year and peaked at 109 vessels in January this year.

Since then, the backlog has been steadily decreasing as imports have slowed and consumer spending has shifted back to the service sector, reaching single digits in the last month.

Congestion may be over in Southern California, but not across North America

Ports such as the Port of Houston, Savannah and New York-New Jersey are facing congestion as some cargo is shifting to East Coast and Gulf Coast ports due to concerns about labor negotiations at West Coast ports.

MarineTraffic vessel space data and port queue lists showed 59 container ships waiting outside North American ports Tuesday morning, mainly on the East Coast and Gulf Coast.

That's still well above pre-outbreak levels, when the number was in the single digits. But congestion is apparently easing, with the backlog of ships down 60 percent from its peak earlier this year.

As of Wednesday morning, the largest backlog of ships on the East Coast was at the Port of Savannah, Georgia, where 28 container ships were waiting to berth. The Port of Virginia had 11 ships, the Port of New York-New Jersey had 1 ship and the Bahamas Freeport had 1 ship.

On the Gulf Coast, there are six container ships near the Port of Houston and one near the Port of Mobile. On the West Coast, the Port of Oakland, California has the highest number of vessels in line with 9 vessels waiting to berth. Another two ships are off the port of Vancouver, British Columbia.

While the Southern California Maritime Exchange announced Tuesday that the backlog of ships outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach cleared, the backlog has actually ended in the past three months.

Since Aug. 24, only an average of seven vessels per day have been lined up outside the ports, with several instances of three or fewer.

The number of vessels in the queue could increase again if import demand recovers or if there are new disruptions in the supply chain. Beyond that, the number of vessels appears likely to hover at very low levels, but will not disappear completely and is expected to be in line with the single-digit numbers seen since late August.