Southern California’s Notorious Container Ship Backup Ends
Slump in imports, cargo diversions to other ports help shrink queue of dozens of vessels
Container ships and oil tankers wait in the ocean outside the Port of Long Beach-Port of Los Angeles complex on April 7, 2021.
PHOTO: LUCY NICHOLSON/REUTERSBy
Paul BergerFollow
Oct. 21, 2022 5:30 am ET
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The backup of container ships off Southern California’s coast that was at the heart of U.S. supply chain congestion during the Covid-19 pandemic has effectively disappeared.
The queue of ships waiting to unload at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell from a peak of 109 ships in January to four vessels this week, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California. Shipping specialists say fewer ships than normal are heading to the main U.S. gateway complex for imports from Asia in coming days and that cargo volumes that had long swamped the ports now are receding.
Bottlenecks continue to delay cargo at other major U.S. seaports and at inland freight hubs, but the end of the backup at the big ports in California signals broader supply-chain tangles that have been troubling retailers and manufacturers are unwinding
