The Port of New York and New Jersey experience a backlog of about 10 to 12 container ships, due to Covid-19, holiday time off for workers, a rise in charter vessels and a major snowstorm.
According to Port Authority Director Sam Ruda, there has been an increase in the number of labor going out into quarantine, with Jim McNamara, a spokesman for the International Longshoremen’s Association, adding that this shortage is balances by the availability of other workers from cruise-ship terminals.
Because of this combination of factors, the result was an average wait time at anchor for container ships of 4.75 days in the last week of 2021, compared with an average of 1.6 days for the full year.
At the other coast, December saw a record 101 containerships waiting to berth at LA and Long Beach.
More specifically, 101 containerships are spread out across 1,000 miles of North American coastline, waiting for space at America’s twin top gateways.
During November, the US asked ships to idle some 150 miles from the coastline. This new process aims to improve safety and air quality off of Southern California while also “dramatically reducing” the number of backlogged ships at anchor close to shore near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
In addition, the Port of Los Angeles plans to begin charging a fee to ocean carriers that allow empty containers to linger on the Port’s marine terminals for nine days or longer.
However, US hauliers fear that the empty-container dwell charge will see shipping lines delay the return of boxes to the port.
What is more, drayage firms are concerned this could prompt ocean liners to adopt a more restrictive stance on accepting empty boxes and have reported problems with returning empty containers before.
