LA Long Beach Ports

[LakeMeadLavey]

My company imports several containers a week through the LA Ports. There have been long delays for the last several months but now seems things are getting worse by the day.

According to our freight forwarder and a few news blurbs, LA and Long Beach ports are experiencing a massive COVID outbreak with a possibility of a shutdown. This would be devastating to so many businesses and our country as a whole. Most people have no idea how many things Americans rely on that come through the LA ports.

If I recall correctly, we have several dockworkers/Longshoremen members on here? Just curious to hear your take on the situation at the port with this backlog and COVID outbreak.

 

[RitcheyRch]

@djunkie might be able to provide some information.

 

[lbhsbz]

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All those green dots anchored are container ships waiting to get into port. I haven't seen that many out there in a very long time.

From one of my ocean freight guys:


"Domino effect of e-commerce explosion from COVID and slowdowns from COVID.

Worse than the ILWU contract labor disruption from 2014-5...

It’s going to be like this through May"

 

[boatpi]

It is and has been a disaster for months. We import millions in aluminum. Delays have been up to four weeks at any time. right now there’s over 30 ships sitting outside the Harbor, all Burning diesel fuel for sometime two weeks at a time waiting for a spot at the dock.

Here’s the worst part is everybody’s cost of goods will rise!! we were paying $2500 for a container from Asia in May, last month we paid $7000 for the same container!!!!! Sometime or even charge a fee up the $200 a day for the friggin container just sitting at the dock even know they haven’t told us to pick it up part of that is a scam.

I took the photo that I posted here about three weeks ago it’s even worse now.

 

[ka0tyk]

Yup I see them all sitting out in the harbor every day I drop my kid off at school. They're stacking up quickly.

 

[Bpracing1127]

I just got news they are shutting down Friday. I l don’t know the validity of those statements I am hearing. My business is heavy on international shipments

 

[Carlson-jet]

Anybody know who bought out Long Beach naval shipyard?

After review by the DoD and CIA, the lease went through, at an agreed-upon payment of $14.5 million per year from the Chinese, with renewal scheduled after ten years.
If only the news told the news.

 

[NicPaus]

Waiting on cabinets that are stuck at the port. Containers have been sitting there up to 3 months i was told yesterday. I am right here at a job 2 blocks from port in Pedro. Mountains of Containers sitting there unloaded but not moving Waiting to be processed out. It has caused a shortage of Containers. Trying to buy a 45' high cube and fucked up by not buying last month when they were $2350. Now 4-4800$.

 

[boatpi]

It has never been this bad. And we cannot get 45’ cans, so more air in the container. We had to raise
Out prices by 5%, it was kicking our azz. So we
Over ordered to cover us, and that was shocking costly.

 

[oldschool]

We export a significant percentage of our citrus and grapes and have been struggling with this for a while. This is a global issue in all ports, but I’m sure our local union dock workers will hunker down and work through this.

 

[NicPaus]

They told me new ships not designed for 45' and they are fazing them out. One spot used to have hundreds on hand he said he has a few left. Others sold out. Only $100 more than the 40s. Figured might as well go 45 as the monthly storage is the same.

 

[Desert Whaler]

I've heard the covid thing hit down there . . . then last night I bumped into my buddy who's a Longshoreman buying a 6'er of foam at the liquor store.
I asked him about it, and he said that's BS . . . his reply was 'We just don't have the dock space'.
I've boated / fished in there since the mid 80's . . . it's crazy how much land they've built-out in there!
Oh yeah, he also said Amazon came in and purchased a staging/storage area that is as big as 3 HB housing tracts and by the end of the day it was completely full of containers.
Psycho.

 

[DWC]

Rumor it was up to 48 ships in a holding pattern as of Monday. That’s not even the whole story. The ships on the way haven’t been heading full speed. They’re in cruise mode knowing that they’ll be waiting in line for quite awhile. Gonna be a tough winter.

 

[Danger Dave]

Anybody know who bought out Long Beach naval shipyard?

After review by the DoD and CIA, the lease went through, at an agreed-upon payment of $14.5 million per year from the Chinese, with renewal scheduled after ten years.
If only the news told the news.

Hanjin(South Korea) ended up with it after the the deal with COSCO(China) was scuttled.

 

[grumpy88]

So if cost to import goods goes up why does that not equal the cost to buy american made materials ?

 

[lbhsbz]

Hanjin(South Korea) ended up with it after the the deal with COSCO(China) was scuttled.

Huh? Hanjin was liquidated 3 years ago I thought

 

[Danger Dave]

Huh? Hanjin was liquidated 3 years ago I thought

They were, I was paraprasing from the same Wiki article the original quote came from. I think MSC may have it now.

 

[Carlson-jet]

Hanjin(South Korea) ended up with it after the the deal with COSCO(China) was scuttled.

Money talks. Ever hear of an offshore account?
How does a Naval Base for the U.S. Of A turn into a trading post for the middle east.
How are we leasing the land to run one of our prestigious bases in So-Cal from Mexico that resides in the U.S. Border?
I'm not here for a fight. I trust my Dog more than the Government

 

[Danger Dave]

Money talks. Ever hear of an offshore account?
How does a Naval Base for the U.S. Of A turn into a trading post for the middle east.
How are we leasing the land to run one of our prestigious bases in So-Cal from Mexico that resides in the U.S. Border?
I'm not here for a fight. I trust my Dog more than the Government

You do realize this happened in 2002, right?

 

[Carlson-jet]

You do realize this happened in 2002, right?

You understand corruption Right? LOL
Wealth shift doesn't happen with luck.

 

[Wizard29]

When I hike and mountain bike, I can see the stretch of ocean between the mainland and Catalina. It is amazing how many ships are just sitting out there idle. Never seen that many stacked up.

 

[Done-it-again]

Our delivery guy from our shipment this week said all drivers picking up at the port need the covid vaccine. Could be part of it as well.

 

[monkeyswrench]

Our delivery guy from our shipment this week said all drivers picking up at the port need the covid vaccine. Could be part of it as well.

I was wondering if the vaccine thing could be part of the slowdown. If they want drivers to get it, they would probably want the longshoremen as well
Excuse me, the "longshore-people"...

 

[Dana757]

Buy USA!

 

[boatpi]

I lot of this comes down to one thing, TRUMP economy, we are consuring so many goods our country cannot produce enough. In aluminum, the USA can only produce perhaps 50% of what we consume, and that will decrease as the auto industry is using more every year.

 

[rivergames]

I took this on my boat on 12-26-2020. Kinda hard to tell, but there are so many ships just sitting there....

Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk

 

[Desert Whaler]

..... my ‘Uncle Al’ was a ‘Merchant Marine’ .... ever heard of that ???? .... funny story .... he got so ‘plowed’ partying in a South Pacific foreign port once that he woke up and his ‘ship was leaving’.... he said he hired a canoe to ‘paddle-him-out’ to the ship as it was leaving .... they lowered a rope to him & he climbed up as it was leaving ....so spare me the ‘Orange Vest Jargon’.

 

[H20 Toie]

Getting stuff that has been flown in isn't much better, normally a plane lands and few hours later you get your stuff, we have equipment that arrived last night. we have been told we might get it saturday

 

[nowski]

Check out Huntington Beach Live cams, just amazing how many ships are sitting there...

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[Cdog]

Chinese New Year starts Monday. Everything there will be shut down for 2-3 weeks and factories shut down for a month.

Im sure they sent everything they can out the door before the shut down

 

[boatpi]

As far as C NY, it is speculation that the costs may subside after that date,,,,we will see. For now we had to pass it along once it zoomed past 5G a container, and that is just for ocean freight, add insurances, de vanning, and land trucking.

 

[RichL]

Check out Huntington Beach Live cams, just amazing how many ships are sitting there...

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Huntington Beach & Pier Live Webcam Stream located in Huntington Beach, California. | HDOnTap.com - Professional Live Webcam Hosting and Hardware Solutions.

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That's nuts.

 

[Motor Boater]

Do you guys sit at your emission tests and wonder if the 50 container ships sitting a mile offshore burning diesel for weeks at a time are causing any pollution? I’m sure those ships meet all CA emissions standards.

 

[boatpi]

Emissions, that is so political in everyway now, Al Gore was the smart guy who $tarted all of that, and made $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. it is real ,but these azzholes make it into a busine$$

 

[boatnam2]

It's weird to see the cruise ships sitting out there also with no lights on at night.

 

[Blackmagic94]

Expect conexs to sky rocket in value in the short term after people figure out that CNY is not going to get better for this when it is over

 

[Jed-O]

It's weird to see the cruise ships sitting out there also with no lights on at night.

Chinese light bulbs already burned out...

 

[Hdgasser]

I wouldn’t call it a Covid “outbreak”... let’s call them what 99% of people are taking.

Covidcations.

 

[grumpy88]

So if cost to import goods goes up why does that not equal the cost to buy american made materials ?

Im still waiting ? Trump imposed tarrifs to offset govt manipulated economy's to equal the playing field . Now ports and foreign manufacturing are delayed and adding increased cost . Again i ask why cant we produce and buy American ?

 

[OHHH YAAA]

I work at the Port of Long Beach (not a longshoremen, but I work directly with the union clerks on the company side). The labor shortage that we are experiencing is a combo of things.

First obviously is Covid cases, and exposure cases play a part, but also a lot of longshore men and women use the job as supplemental since you don't have to work if you don't want to ( you only have to work once every 6 months to keep in good standing with the union, last I knew of). So, spouses that can afford not to work are staying home to limit their exposure, or take care of and help kids that are now "homeschooling".

As far as shutting down on Friday that's news to me.

In regards to requiring truck drivers to have vaccines that's not in the cards right now either. They are trying to get port workers moved up in the priority line for the vaccine, but there are vaccine requirements. They aren't even doing temperature checks (regardless of the effectiveness of that) on these truckers coming into the terminal let alone Vaccine requirements.

 

[Tooms22]

LA, Long Beach ports weather storms, record cargo and COVID-19 surges

Officials hope forecasters are right and the winds will be less fierce than those earlier in the week that sent about two dozen huge cargo ships fleeing from the local harbors for protection.

www.ocregister.com

Apparently high seas and wind were factor recently.

 

[RVRKID]

My buddy went up tonight ant posted these pics, thought they were pretty cool, and damn that’s a lot of boats!

 

[boatpi]

I took this in Monday. I have a container has been sitting on the ship just outside the port since January 21. We still can’t get it to a dock. That’s 100 grand in my money sitting there burning a hole in my wallet that I can’t collect on the worst part is I have 13 of them on the ocean.

 

[NicPaus]

The amount of containers sitting there has doubled since my last post. Try and snap a pic when I drive by in 30 minutes. Had to change my cabinet order yesterday. The containers in the port I was waiting on are pushed back 3 weeks they told me yesterday. Heard there was 55 ships waiting to unload.

 

[Havazoo]

Here is an article from Freightwaves.com for your review:

Voyages canceled as volume and congestion overwhelm capacity

Greg Miller, Senior Editor [freightwaves.com], American Shipper Follow on Twitter [twitter.com]Wednesday, January 27, 2021



It’s official: Container volumes in the Asia-U.S. trans-Pacific trade have hit their limit. Massive port congestion in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is forcing ocean carriers to take extreme measures. Sailings are now being “blanked” (canceled) not because of lack of demand, but because of lack of tonnage as ships are stuck awaiting berths [freightwaves.com].

When ships fall behind schedule due to long waits in port, carriers normally add “recovery vessels” to take their place and keep weekly services going. There are no recovery vessels left. According to Hapag-Lloyd, “as our fleets are fully deployed and stretched beyond capacity, this is regretfully currently not an option.”

As a result, Hapag-Lloyd has blanked 19 sailings in February. “It is important to emphasize that vessels will not be idling at any time and we will perform as many voyages as possible,” stressed the carrier. Hapag-Lloyd is a member of THE Alliance along with Ocean Network Express (ONE), Yang Ming and HMM.

‘Need-to-get-back-on-schedule blanks’

“Schedule reliability is horrible,” said Simon Sundboell, founder of eeSea, a company that analyzes ship schedules. “These are not ‘pull-out-capacity blanks.’ These are ‘need-to-get-back-on-schedule blanks,’” Sundboell told American Shipper.

Carriers usually blank sailings at this time of year due to lower exports during the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday. Carriers initially opted to keep CNY sailings largely intact [freightwaves.com] in order to clear the export pileup at Chinese ports. But the congestion in Los Angeles and Long Beach is leaving carriers short of ships. That means the pileup in Asia will take even longer to clear.

The eeSea platform provides complimentary access to real-time blank sailing data [eesea.com]. The data as of Wednesday reveals an 11% dip in Asia-U.S. sailings in February versus January. This is despite continued high cargo demand.

Asia-U.S. scheduled sailings by month (Chart: eeSea)

During a webinar presented by freight forwarder Flexport on Tuesday, Seaintelligence Consulting CEO Lars Jensen explained, “When you have all the vessels stuck waiting outside ports, they cannot make the return journey so they cannot start the sailing they were supposed to do. The blank sailings now are not a choice. They are an operational necessity.”

No letup in San Pedro Bay traffic jam

At any given time since the beginning of this year, there have been around 30 container ships stuck waiting at anchorages in San Pedro Bay offshore of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The situation has not improved at all. According to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, there were 33 container ships at anchorages and 26 at berths on Wednesday. Including all ship types, there were 55 vessels at anchorages — a new record, with all Los Angeles/Long Beach anchorages full and all contingency anchorages off Huntington also full.

San Pedro Bay container-ship positions Jan. 27 (Map: MarineTraffic)

On Monday, many of those vessels had to leave anchorage and go to sea due to extreme storm conditions. Winds gusted to 55 mph and swells reached 15 feet. Marine Exchange Executive Director Kip Louttit exclaimed that he “could not recall a more complex situation with this many vessels and this bad a wind and sea condition for such a sustained period of time.”

Port congestion is being caused by high inbound volumes combined with surging COVID cases among dockworkers [freightwaves.com]. A spokesperson for the ILWU dockworkers union told American Shipper that number of its members testing positive had risen to 803 as of Monday, up 16% from 694 as of Jan. 17.

“They can’t service the ships fast enough, which has led to waiting times of 10-14 days or even more, depending on the terminal,” said Nerijus Poskus, global head of ocean freight at Flexport [freightwaves.com].

“As of last week, there were almost 300,000 TEUs [twenty-foot equivalent units] waiting to get offloaded,” Poskus added.

Jensen put it another way. “It is the equivalent of pulling five full trans-Pacific services out of action as long as you have these waiting times,” he said. “The impact is massive.”

Deteriorating reliability, rising rolls

As previously reported by American Shipper, global schedule reliability has collapsed to around 50% [freightwaves.com] versus normal levels of 70%-80%. Getting a box delivered on time is no better than a coin toss. In reality, the chance is much worse. Schedule reliability data doesn’t take into account blank sailings. Nor does it take into account cargo that is “rolled” — pushed off to a subsequent voyage.

Data on cargo rolls by the world’s top liners at the world’s top ports is compiled by Ocean Insights. According to Ocean Insights data released last week, the share of shipments that did not sail aboard their originally scheduled vessels rose to 37% in December. That’s up sharply from 29% in July and 25% in December 2019.



One importer moving goods from China via Los Angeles wrote to American Shipper: “We’re seeing over 60 days of additional transit time now. The entire process used to take 28 days. Now containers shipped in November have still not reached their final destination.”

Add it all up and U.S. consumers should see escalating shortages of goods on the shelves. That, in turn, should fuel import demand even further into 2021.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

One of the central drivers of today’s capacity crunch is a shortfall of containers. Or rather, a shortfall of containers positioned in the right place.

But there are some glimmers of hope. Data on container-equipment availability is tracked by the Container x-Change Container Availability Index. Availability of 40-foot high cubes (40HCs) remains extremely low. But availability of 20-foot dry cargo (20DC) and 40-foot standard dry cargo (40DC) units improved markedly this month.

The index “finally shows a positive trend,” asserted David Amezquita, head of data insights at Container xChange. The upcoming CNY period could “finally be the turning point,” added the company.

An index level below 0.5 is considered a shortage. In the third week of January, the index in Shanghai for 20DCs was up to 0.34 and for 40DCs to 0.37. The index for 40HCs was still a very low 0.11.



Getting back to normal

Jensen expressed confidence that the container-equipment challenge will be resolved fairly soon. Chinese factories have been busy churning out new boxes.

“What’s happening now is exactly the same scenario we saw in 2010 after the financial crisis. If you look at 2010, they went on a building spree. It took about three months from when the problem arose to when it was resolved. If we put that in the context we have now, this should be resolved by Chinese New Year.

“The wild card this time around is the port congestion because that ties up a significant part of the ability to reposition the empty containers back into balance. That could delay things somewhat,” acknowledged Jensen.

As more containers are manufactured, liners should simultaneously work to get sailings back on schedule. “It appears the carriers plan to use the post-Chinese New Year period to get their vessels back on schedule,” said Jensen. “If that works out and if we get the port congestion sorted out — which is a big if — we could get back to normal levels [of service reliability] within a few months. But that’s the optimistic view.” Click for more FreightWaves/American Shipper articles by Greg Miller [freightwaves.com]

 

[Bpracing1127]

Ok m being told by my Chinese supplier that they are not shipping anything out until March this is due to no ships the the Chinese ports also no truck drivers from plants to ports in China. This won’t be over in a couple of weeks. We are looking at a recovery date in may now for a shipment that was supposed to land in 2 weeks

 

[Havazoo]

Then there's Chinese New Year....
The Chinese New Year of 2021 falls on February 12th (Friday), and the festival will last to February 26th, about 15 days in total.

 

[dspracing]

I spoke with a longshoreman who handles the routing of containers when they are offloaded from the ship. He had indicated that the problem on their end is limited to the lack of storage space in conjunction with limited capacity to get the containers moved out of the port. As a result, they are moving every container 2-3 times before it leaves the port which in itself creates a labor shortage (union standard, takes 4-5 guys to move one container).

 

[Done-it-again]

If you guys haven't changed delivery ports by now you are doing it wrong... Not always cheaper, but when the shit happens bringing it from the south east or south west states and you will get them faster.....

 

[FROGMAN524]

If we made anything here this wouldn't be an issue, but no, everyone wants $75/hr and full benefits. Guess there's no choice.