Recently, a cold wave swept the United States and quickly plunged the southern state of Texas into disaster. In this unprecedented cold wave, more than 4 million people in the United States have suffered power outages, countless power plants have been destroyed, and electricity and natural gas prices have skyrocketed. ; At present, the price of electricity in Texas has increased by more than 100 times, up to 9,000 US dollars per megawatt, and the price of natural gas has skyrocketed by more than 160 times, reaching US$500, compared with only US$3 in the past; it is jaw-dropping.
Except for Texas, which is in a serious disaster, other states in the United States are not doing well. There are about 168 million people in the United States under the threat of this cold wave. Numerous airports have been suspended. According to data from the flight monitoring website "flightaware", Dallas and Houston , Austin area airports have cancelled more than 2,000 inbound and outbound flights on the 15th . Coupled with the new crown pneumonia crisis that is still raging across the United States, the United States is really miserable.
In terms of shipping, the Southern California anchorage is full of container ships, and the congestion continues to worsen ! The latest video released by the U.S. Coast Guard provides intuitive evidence of the congestion levels in Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach. From the picture, a large number of container ships are moored at the anchorage in San Pedro Bay, California.
Data shows that the historic container ship congestion in California ports has not really eased. There are currently 63 container ships in Los Angeles and Long Beach, and 32 container ships are waiting for berths at anchorages. (On February 1st, the highest record of 40 container ships anchored at anchorage)
The Port of Los Angeles announced the number of berth days for a particular container ship through its Signal platform last week. Data shows that some ships stay at anchorage and wait for almost as long as they sail across the Pacific Ocean . For example, as of last Thursday, the 6332TEU container ship "Ever Envoy" has been parked for 11 days. As of Tuesday, the 9,400TEU "MSC Romane" has been parked for 12 days. And the three container ships of 11356TEU "CMA CGM Andromeda", 8452 TEU "Ever Liven" and 4888TEU "NYK Nebula" also berthed for 11 days as of last week.
As of the end of 2020, the number of container ships at anchor has increased to 30; since then, it has remained between 20 and 40. At the same time, the number of vessels at berths in Los Angeles and Long Beach remained at around 20 and 30. Kip Louttit, executive director of the Southern California Shipping Exchange, said: "We seem to have adapted to the new normal of about 30 container ships waiting in line every day. I don't know if this situation will continue."
As of Tuesday, the average time for ships docking in Los Angeles was 8 days , up from 7.3 days at the beginning of last week. From the information on the waiting time of ships provided by the platform from January 27th, the waiting time for ships to berth has been maintained for about one week, and the data for the last two periods has been extended to 8 days.
The latest data from the Signal platform: 20 ships at anchor, with an average anchoring time of 8.0 days. There are 14 ships waiting to be pre-anchored.
What caused the blockage? The extended berthing time of ships forced some shipping companies to cancel multiple voyages this month. This is not due to lack of cargo demand, but due to lack of available vessels to handle these services. Delays on land have also caused congestion at sea: extremely high inbound volumes and complex logistics inside and outside the port have caused delays on land. One of the challenges facing the port is the new crown virus infection of dockers and a serious shortage of labor.
Despite productivity gains last month, terminal operators at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach said the ports may have to wait until the end of spring to get rid of the ship backlog and congestion that have plagued them in the past six months . The near-record number of containers will continue into the spring of this year, but the backlog of ships at the port and the fully loaded inbound containers at the terminal should disappear sometime between April and June.
The managers of SSA Marine, Yusen Terminals and Fenix Marine stated that in order to alleviate the congestion in the port, two projects to be developed are necessary. First, the COVID-19 vaccine must be widely distributed among dock workers to alleviate the recent labor shortage. During the Lunar New Year holiday this month, container traffic has declined moderately, which should also enable shipping terminals to remove the backlog of fully loaded imported containers from their facilities.
"The terminals are full and there is no place to put these containers. We deliver 35% less cargo (to truck drivers) than usual," said Ed Dannick, president of SSA Containers.
According to data from the HarborTrucking Association, the average truck stay at the terminal in January improved from 93 minutes in December to 88 minutes, but it was still much higher than the record low of 58 minutes in June. Imports peaked during the recovery period after the first wave of COVID-19 lockdown.
The backlog of ships in Long Beach, Los Angeles, is increasing unabated. According to statistics from the Marine Exchange of Southern California, there are currently 63 container ships in the Port of Long Beach in Los Angeles, of which 32 are at anchor waiting for berths and 31 are at berths.
The latest data released by the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA) shows that in December last year, the average container stay time at the 12 terminals of the Port of Long Beach in Los Angeles was 4.99 days. This is twice the average length of stay (approximately 2.5 days) recorded by PMSA in the first half of 2020.
“The longer the container stays at the terminal, the more serious the congestion will be. When the container piles up like a mountain, the congestion creates additional and inefficient handling requirements,” said PMSA’s government affairs manager jessicaalvarenga.
The new crown epidemic hits labor in the port
According to the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), the West Coast port employers' Association and the International Terminal and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the new crown epidemic has severely affected the labor force along the Los Angeles-Long Beach Port. As of January 17, The International Terminal and Warehouse Union (ILWU) reported that 694 of its members tested positive. By January 25, this number jumped to 803.
PMA stated that there is a particular shortage of skilled equipment operators, who need to remove containers from trucks, and then move them into and out of the container yard, which is critical to the operation of the terminal. As a result, the joint committee of PMA and ILWU, which is responsible for allocating workers to the docks on a daily basis, cut the allocation share.
"It boils down to the labor issue at the terminal," said Scott Weiss, vice president of business development at Port Logistics Group, which has a large number of truck and warehouse operations throughout Southern California. "Containers still have bottlenecks in and out of the terminal."
The latest information released by the Signal platform of the Port of Los Angeles shows that due to the new crown epidemic, the productivity of coastal labor has decreased, which has caused ship delays and the average delay of port facilities is 8.0 days .
These ports are working with trans-Pacific shipping companies to reduce Southern California's load until the volume returns to normal. Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said that he is working with shipping companies and terminal operators to "measure" imports until the port catches up. Hapag-Lloyd (Hapag-Lloyd) has announced the opening of a structured route to Southern California in February, and CMA CGM will remove Los Angeles from the trans-Pacific route and use Oakland as the first port of call from Asia. , Followed by Seattle-Tacoma.
The terminal operator said that when workers throughout the supply chain are vaccinated and imports drop, the congestion in Long Beach, Los Angeles, will disappear.
Spring recovery?
Alan McCorkle, President and Chief Executive Officer of Yusen Terminals in Los Angeles, said that in the past six months, the container throughput of these terminals was close to record levels, but there was no overall congestion. This fact shows that if the peak season does not last for six consecutive months, they will have Ability to handle peak season cargo volume. He expects to return to normal in May or June.
Scott Schoenfeld, general manager of Fenix Marine Services in Los Angeles, said that Fenix is showing signs of improvement, so he is optimistic that congestion may be eased as early as April . The density of containers in the yard is not as high as late last year, and more truck drivers are able to transport containers every day.
However, container traffic is still rising, and as overloaded ships continue to arrive in Southern California, this trend will continue until at least next month. NVOCC consultant Jon Monroe said that the eastbound transpacific shipping company has deployed or will add 10 additional loading vessels in February, all deployed at the Port of Los Angeles-Long Beach. Judging from the latest data from the Los Angeles Signal platform, there was another peak in the surge in volume in the eighth week.
Volume surged in the eighth week
Jon Monroe pointed out that although more Chinese factories will continue to maintain at least part of their business this month to clear the backlog of merchandise orders compared to previous years, the total volume of the East Pacific trans-Pacific region should be greater than the previous six months. Months are less.
Scott Weiss, vice president of business development at Port Logistics Group, said that the 1.8 billion square feet of industrial and distribution space throughout Southern California is not fully loaded, just like last fall before the holiday season merchandise was transferred to stores across the country. However, the availability of space in warehouses and distribution facilities has been mixed. "Some warehouses are in a mess now, others are working well. I think the ratio is about 50-50,"
Scott Weiss said that productivity has generally declined, and warehouses across the region are experiencing labor shortages due to the new crown epidemic, but at the same time, freight volumes are still exceptionally strong. "Everyone I contacted is experiencing record sales and growth, but everyone is working hard to cope."
Weston LaBar, CEO of the Port Transportation Association, said that the current truck capacity is tight, and the availability of workers at both ends of the truck driver's route, the terminal and the distribution warehouse, has been challenged . However, when workers feel safe, they return in large numbers. LaBar said: "The most effective thing we can do right now is to vaccinate."
