The analysis focused on the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, New York-New Jersey and Savannah to gather information on vessel arrival delays, berth times and the size and number of vessels calling each of these ports.
Port performance in North America was recently analyzed by CargoSmart’s Global Vessel Voyage Monitoring Center (GVVMC), which gathered data from the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, New York-New Jersey and Savannah between Nov. 1, 2015 and Jan. 26, 2016.
Vessel arrival delays, berth times, and the size and number of vessels arriving at each of the four ports were analyzed by the GVVMC.
During the period, all four ports experienced an increasing trend in average vessel arrival delays. The Port of Los Angeles had the shortest average vessel arrival delays each month, while, somewhat ironically, the Port of Long Beach, located just a few miles from Port of LA in San Pedro Bay, had the longest average vessel arrival delays during two of the three months.
Average vessel arrival delays for each of the three months were as follows:
• Port of Los Angeles – 8.3 hours in November, 9.6 hours in December and 16.5 hours in January;
• Port of Long Beach – 16.3 hours in November, 15.3 hours in December and 25.4 hours in January;
• Port of New York-New Jersey – 14.9 hours in November, 18.7 hours in December and 24.2 hours in January;
• And Port of Savannah – 15.6 hours in November, 21.7 hours in December and 22.5 hours in January.
Each month, average vessel berth times were the shortest at the Port of Savannah, followed by the Port of New York-New Jersey. Average vessel berth times at both West Coast ports were much higher, which could be a result of the larger vessels that call these two ports.
During the entire period combined, average vessel berth times totaled 19.1 hours at the Port of Savannah, 26.1 hours at the Port of New York-New Jersey, 54.3 hours at the Port of Long Beach and 55.4 hours at the Port of Los Angeles.
In both November and December, the Port of New York-New Jersey had the largest number of vessel arrivals, followed by the Port of Savannah, the Port of Los Angeles and then the Port of Long Beach. For vessel arrivals, the analysis only compared the months of November and December, since the data scope only went through Jan. 26.
In terms of vessel size, unlike the two East Coast ports, both West Coast ports served vessels with a capacity of greater than 10,000 TEUs.
CargoSmart: Vessel arrival delays growing at major North American ports
