West Coast port vessel buildup shows maritime supply chain breaking
Tugboats guide the Mediterranean Shipping Co. (MSC) Mia container ship arriving at the Port of Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Wednesday, April 1, 2020.
The number of vessels due to dock at the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach is increasing as labor slowdowns at West Coast port terminals have impacted supply chain operations, from trucks to rails and ocean carriers.
On Wednesday, six vessels were delayed at the Port of Los Angeles, while two vessels at the Port of Long Beach were at anchor on arrival — unable to interface with the port operations, according to a vessel update announced by the Marine Exchange of Southern California & Vessel Traffic Service, Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Data from MarineTraffic shows that vessel problems are shifting from isolated to more pervasive. Over the past two-and-a-half months, average wait times at anchorage in LA were between a half-day to one-and-a-half days, with service time averaging of two to five days.
At the APL Terminals in LA, docked vessels are now occupying space for as many as nine days.
"This indicates we've broken past the 'normal' and are back into a stressed maritime supply chain," said Captain Adil Ashiq, Head of North America for MarineTraffic. He said these vessels have yet to be loaded/offloaded and sent away, critical to make room for the next wave of vessels heading to Los Angeles. "The ripple effect may be a hard thing to swallow considering that we will have imports sitting idle and exports sitting idle," he said.
One of the vessel that was waiting to enter the Port of Los Angeles on Wednesday was the MSC JEONGMIN, whose journey has been documented using CNBC Supply Chain Heat Map data provider MarineTraffic, and was an early example of how the spike in labor issues at West Coast ports was beginning to hit ocean operations. The vessel — carrying products including tires for Tesla, IKEA furniture, Trader Joe's food, Europe wine, porcelain tile and granite slab — left the Port of Oakland on May 31. It was later seen circling for a day before the vessel was due at LA, but when the vessel arrived on Wednesday it was turned around, and rescheduled to arrive later in the day.
At the Port of Los Angeles, the CMA CGN Lyra has been at the dock since May 31; CMA CGM Amerigo Vespucci has been there since June 1. At the Ports America Terminal, the YM Unicorn has been docked since May 31 and One Hangshou Bay has been docked since June 2.
When vessels go off schedule, the delays slide the arrival to additional ports, impacting their container deliveries, and ultimately contributing to container congestion, which was seen in the extreme during the Covid pandemic.
Source: CNBC
