The number of container ships waiting to offload at the neighboring ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles remains high, with dockworkers working pre-pandemic hours to alleviate a bottleneck.
According to Bloomberg, twenty-nine vessels loaded with containers were anchored last weekend outside the biggest gateway for American trade with Asia.
What is more, eighteen more are planned to arrive over the next three days, with 10 of those set to drop anchor. The average wait for berth space was 7.5 days, falling from 7.7 days a week ago.
In addition, over 30 container ships are expected to arrive in Los Angeles by the end of March, with at least 27 ships expected to dock in Long Beach in that time.
Furthermore, CNBC reports that the combination of a record number of containers arriving at the Port of Los Angeles and COVID-19 is slowing down imports to the U.S.
This congestion has some companies forgoing maritime shipping, choosing airfreight to get popular or seasonal items on store shelves faster. Air rates are more expensive than shipping via ocean freight, but they have been dropping in recent months.
