Thirteen ships are at anchor in San Pedro Harbor including eight containerships.
UPDATE: Kip Louttit, executive director of the Marine Exchange of Southern California, reports that at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 29, there were 10 ships at anchor at the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, with four containerships and one bulk ship having gone to berth last night.
Wednesday morning, there are six container vessels at anchor, four fewer than Tuesday night, and four bulk ships, one fewer than Tuesday night. The six containerships are Kobe Express, NYK Maria, NYK Argus, NYK Diana, Augusta Kondor and Hanjin Ami. The four bulk ships are Loch Long, Josco Yangzhou, Kiwi Trader and Desert Melody.
Congestion at the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach shows no signs of abating, as there are currently 15 ships at anchor, including 8 containerships, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California.
J. Kip Louttit, executive director of the Marine Exchange, which tracks traffic in the port, said over the weekend, there were 11 ships waiting for berths on Sunday along with three bulk ships. This morning, as of 7 a.m., there were 13 ships at anchor, eight container ships and five bulk carriers.
He said the eight containerships are Toyko Express, Kobe Express, NYK Maria, Cap Cleveland, NYK Argus, CGM CMA Rigoletto, NYK Diana and Augusta Kondor.
The five bulk ships are Falcon Trader 1, Loch Long, Josco Yangzhou, Kiwi Trader, and Desert Melody.
And additional four containerships are scheduled to arrive at port today; eight more will arrive on Wednesday, with an additional eight coming on Thursday.
Ships are having to wait for berths because of backups at terminals in the two ports, explained one executive.
Terminals at the two ports have been struggling this year because of large amounts of cargo arriving earlier this year than in the past due to concern by shippers over ongoing contract negotiations by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Congestion is also being caused because of the decision by container carriers to divest themselves of chassis, leaving distribution of chassis up to leasing companies.
“There is a natural shortage of chassis in the region,” said one executive, who notes that there is variation in the demand on how many chassis are needed at different terminals because of different operating methods — for example, some terminals store containers on chassis.
He said more thorough chassis inspections by the ILWU are also slowing down operations, in part because they are asking truckers to get out of their trucks while the inspections are being conducted. The ILWU says it is asking truckers to get out of the trucks during inspections for safety reasons.
“They took a situation that was dire and made it worse,” the executive said, noting that because there is no contract, terminal operators are unable to challenge the change in inspections through arbitration.
Terminal operators believe the union is using the inspection issue to apply pressure during the negotiations.
Because it is difficult to move containers out of the terminal, ships are being unloading more slowly — instead of a ship being unloaded with four gangs of longshoremen, a terminal may only use two because there is nowhere in the terminal to put containers and because containers are moving off the terminal slowly. Terminals can be put in areas where there are no transtainers, but that then requires additional time of longshoremen to stack and recover containers.
“You are expending labor you would not normally expend,” and executive said. “Until we get to slow season, we won’t see ourselves digging out.”
