Preparation for the holiday season has brought in container congestion across the USA, as demand surges and retailers pile up stock, as containers pile up across the West Coast ports, especially in Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Container xChange, a leading neutral online platform for container logistics, has published data on inbound and outbound containers at the US West Coast ports – Los Angeles and Long Beach ports.
“Our CAx (container availability index) data reveals 60% increase in the inbound outbound ratio at the ports of US West Coast, surpassing the pre-Covid levels, indicating that there is excessive stress on the ports, and therefore indicating further congestion is expected in the coming months as we approach the holiday season in the latter part of the year.”, commented Dr. Johannes Schlingmeier, Co-founder and CEO, Container xChange.
Domino effect
The cargo congestion seen in the ports on the US West Coast is a domino effect of the global supply chain disruptions. With demands driving up the need for containers, the situation has been aggravated due to infrastructural and human resources issues faced by logistic companies worldwide. All these factors combined lead to exacerbated delays in cargo arrivals.
There is an average increase of 60% in the CAx values during August 2021 compared to the same period in 2020. This explains why the inbound containers at the LA port have increased 60% from the last year during the same time the previous year.