Wittbecker: West Coast port congestion

The answer is yes and no. It is true that the Ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles were designed for big volume.

The Port of Long Beach handled 817,457 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in March 2024. That was a 25% increase year on year, with imported TEU representing 380,562.

Concerns about congestion arise because importers were frantic to get cargo into the U.S. before the 90-day tariff pause ended.

Prior to the advent of the China tariff turmoil, shippers from China were moving cargo to a host of US ports, including the US Gulf and Eastern Seaboard. This was partially in response to previous problems with congestion in Long Beach and Los Angeles.

However, given the narrow window of time to 1.) catch up on the gap in shipments during late April/May and 2.) a desire to make sure their Christmas shipments got into before higher tariffs resume, shippers were concentrating their shipments into the West Coast to insure they got cargo in before the expiration of the tariff pause.

This is leading to congestion on both sides of the Pacific.

According to Drewry Container Capacity Insight, the number of ships waiting at Shenzhen in South China rose from 17 to 31 between weeks 16 and 20, and the waiting time for the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex went from 17 to 42.

Still, industry experts suggest the spike in shipments will calm down and that the West Coast will be able to handle the volume.