Congestion on the West Coast ports does not appear to be showing any signs up letting up. As of last week, there were nearly 70 container ships waiting to offload their cargo either at anchor or drifting off the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Last week the waiting period at the Port of Los Angeles hit an all-time high of nine days, which is about 2.5 days longer than average wait times experienced in August. During an operational update, Executive Director of the Port of Los Angeles, Gene Seroka said that the congestion equates to “squeezing 10 lanes of freeway traffic into five lanes.” The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports have both indicated that steps are being taken to help remedy the issue, with both planning to expand operational times with a goal of hitting 24/7 operational capacity.
At the same time, the Port of Oakland has reported that the number of container ships has dropped 40 percent compared to last year. However, as the number of ships has declined the amount of cargo entering the port actually increased, while exports decreased by nearly six percent from last year.
Listen to the radio report below.
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