MARINE TRAFFIC JAM
A look at the two busiest ports in the U.S.
Unable to keep up
In June, the Port of Los Angeles became the first port in the Western Hemisphere to process 10 million container units in a 12-month period, closing fiscal year 2020-21 with nearly 10.9 million 20-foot equivalent units known as TEUs. In May 2021, the port processed more than 1 million TEUs — the busiest month ever in the port’s 114-year history and the first time a Western Hemisphere port has reached the 1 million milestone in one month.
There are many causes for the backup of ships waiting to unload in Long Beach and Los Angeles, but the main reason could be attributed to a global pandemic that shot e-commerce buying skyward.
The National Retail Federation has forecast sales in 2021 to come in at $4.44 trillion to $4.56 trillion, a 10.5% to 13.5% jump over 2020.
The cargo surge is expected to continue until the summer of 2022, but the congestion and backlog could be eliminated sooner.
Earlier this week Gene Seroka, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said, “The twin port of Los Angeles and Long Beach will probably manage about 20 million twenty-foot equivalent units this year, with the next closest port at 7-8 million TEUs, so trying to move our excess cargo to other ports was a fleeting aspiration that really never got traction.”
Seroka also commented on 24/7 port operations: “Thirty percent of all the available truck appointments go unused every day. Yes, we may all aspire to a 24/7 supply chain, but let’s start first where we have the skilled workers on the job and the gates are open and the capacity is there for us to utilize, so we can squeeze out every hour of productivity before we start talking about adding cost to the supply chain and getting into this inflationary discussion if we just try to throw money at this. Let’s take advantage of the capacity we have in front of us today.”