Ports in the west of the United States are congested, with cargoes piling up late for up to two weeks

Due to the influence of Christmas, the ports in the west of the United States are congested. Container ships arriving at the port on the same day are still moored in the anchorage of the ports in the west of the United States, waiting for the berth. The ports in the west of the United States are facing the dilemma of high traffic volume.Longer times to move containers from terminals due to a crowded surface transportation supply chain mean there will be no room for container ships in Los Angeles and Long Beach for several days, with average waiting times expected to increase to about two weeks.

The Marine Exchange ofSouthern California, which oversees ship deployment in San Pedro Bay, is understood to have reported yesterday that 34 container ships were sitting in the port, waiting for berthing positions, with another nine expected to arrive today.

Many container ships are still in port after arriving more than a week ago, according to Lloyd's Listintelligence data.These include SM Lines' 4000 TEU "Singapore" (IMO:9256224), which arrived on 21 December and has yet to dock.

Nine vessels arrived on or before Christmas, including MSC Savona 14036 TEU (IMO: 9460356) by MSC Line and Maersk Esmeraldas 13092TEU (IMO: 9502972).

Most of the major carriers are on the anchor list, with Hapag-Lloyd and Ocean Network Express each having five ships waiting for berthing.

Among them, the 8,750 TEU "Colombo Express" of Hapelot (IMO: 9295244) arrived on 24 December, and the 4,888 TEU "NYK Constellation" of ONE also arrived on 24 December, but still stayed at the anchorage.

At the alliance level, it is the alliance's customers who are most affected by the delays, with 11 ships from alliance member companies on the list of ships at anchor.In all, container ships representing nearly 135,000 TEUs are waiting to be unloaded, but the US land transport supply chain is struggling to cope with rising imports from China.

While the ports themselves are under pressure, overcrowding in warehouses and distribution centres and a shortage of drivers are slowing the flow of containers out of the terminals, allowing more cargo to be unloaded.

But while shippers have been frustrated by delays in receiving cargo, the growing number of berthed ships has yet to have a major impact on the reliability of ship schedules despite long waiting times, according to Sea-Intelligence's analysis.

The on-time rate has now fallen to 30 per cent, but is still well above the 11 per cent recorded in 2015.

Sea-intelligence said: "We can see a substantial increase in ship delays in 2020, but it is still well below what the market experienced in 2015 at the height of the Labour disputes at US West Coast ports.While the average late ship delay is now more than six days, delays of nearly five days have occurred several times in the past three years."