East Coast container ports are shut down by a strike by International Longshoremen’s Association workers, but that hasn’t stopped the parade of inbound ships from queuing up outside those maritime hubs.
“Currently, there are over 400,000 twenty foot-equivalent units (TEUs) being carried on the queued vessels outside the affected East and Gulf Coast ports, another 33% increase from yesterday and a 170% jump from the day before the strike began,” said Jena Santoro, senior manager of Intelligence Solutions at Everstream Analytics, in an email to FreightWaves. “There are now 59 vessels waiting, up from 45 [Wednesday] and just three on Sunday.
“Given this trajectory, if the strike lasts even one week, the number of waiting container vessels could easily exceed 100 with the number of halted TEUs surpassing 1 million.”
It’s unknown how long the strike will last. No bargaining is scheduled between the ILA and employers represented by the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX).
Container lines have begun to set surcharges effective later this month to account for strike-related delays. If the strike drags on, shipping costs are expected to rise for cargo diverted to U.S. West Coast ports on a longer route through the Panama Canal. The dislocation is expected to eventually create a shortage of empty containers as well.
There are 15 ships waiting outside Savannah, Georgia, followed by 13 at New York-New Jersey and nine at Norfolk, Virginia, Santoro said.
While ocean carriers reportedly have diverted some vessels and unloaded containers at Caribbean ports, Santoro said no queues have been seen yet at Altamira and Veracruz in Mexico.
At the same time, thousands of import loads from high-profile shippers aren’t moving from strike-affected ports. Data compiled by Vizion shows the biggest backup at the Port of Savannah with 8,971 TEUs on hold, followed by 3,901 at the Port of New York-New Jersey complex, 2,401 at Port Houston, 2,225 at Norfolk and 1,528 at Charleston, South Carolina.
Walmart leads the list of retailers among the top 10 consignees waiting for their cargo with 837 TEUs, along with Costco (290), Lowe’s (253) and Home Depot (222), Vizion found. Dwell time has stretched from single digits for TEUs picked up over the past 60 days, to estimated double digits along the East Coast: from an average 4.5 days per TEU to 21 days at New York-New Jersey; from four to 15 days at Savannah; from 3.7 to 22.1 days at Port Houston; from 5.5 to 19.7 days at Norfolk; and from 4.1 to 21.9 days at Charleston.
Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here.
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