The visibility platform company for shippers and logistics service providers project44 has analysed data for supply chain, indicating that berthing delays are causing a huge build-up of export containers within port terminals and creating a big spike in container dwell times globally.
“Berthing delay is defined as the time it takes a ship between its arrival at anchorage until the time it is berthed to commence cargo operations. If there is a queue of ships waiting for a berth, the ships wait at anchorage until it is their turn to berth,” explains the company.
According to the latest data from project44, export containers at the Port of Los Angeles took an average of 11.85 days to be loaded on a ship between October and November 2021 while its twin Port of Long Beach took an average of 10.98 days.
With export containers taking about twice as long to move through US West Coast ports as import containers, project44 analysts claim that the problem appears to be getting containers off of docks and onto ships.
The Chicago-based company’s analysis shows that long export container dwell times occur when ships berth days after their scheduled berthing times. While these ships wait at anchor, containers that were delivered on time languish at the docks, waiting for their arrival.
“If a carrier advises its customers to deliver export containers at a certain date and time based on the estimated time of arrival (ETA)/berthing schedule of the ship and that ship’s berthing is then delayed, then there will be a build-up of export containers waiting inside the port for the ship,” said Josh Brazil, Vice President of Data Insights at project44.
“This appears to be what’s happening, based on the data we’re seeing. Export containers are subsequently waiting in ports for ships, which are taking longer than expected to arrive,” he added.
Josh Brazil went on to explain that “while dozens of container vessels are slow steaming far off the California coast, we are seeing close to 37 container ships close to shore waiting to berth at these ports and it’s these long queues that are pushing up dwell times on export containers.”.
While vessel traffic data tracked by project44 shows a drop in waiting directly outside the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles in the second half of November 2021, Josh Brazil warns that this drop could be due to the change in the definition of the ‘waiting zone’ based on the new berthing queue system implemented by the San Pedro Bay ports.
“The definition of ‘berth waiting time’ has indeed continually changed throughout this ordeal. For our measurement, we’ve used a generous 80 nautical mile (148.16 km) radius out from the port on anchored container ships and container ships and with vessels <5 knots speed,” noted Brazil.
“However, at least about 50 vessels are slow steaming way off the coast gradually making their way to San Pedro Bay which essentially changes the definition of ‘waiting’ all the way back to the port of origin,” said Brazil. The berthing delays however are impacting the container dwell times for export containers globally.
Container dwell time measures the time that:
- Containers spend in port after being discharged from a ship until it leaves the port for delivery to clients, in the case of imports.
- Containers spend in port after being delivered to the port until they are loaded onto ships, in the case of exports.
For November 2021, export container dwell time data from project44 has tracked more than twice the dwell time of import containers. In Los Angeles, on 1 November the export container dwell times were 11 days, versus 5.04 days for imports.
At the end of November, the disparity was even more pronounced, according to project44, with export containers dwelling 17.49 days versus 6.42 days on imports, more than 2.5 times.
Long Beach seems to have outperformed Los Angeles in regards to dwell time with an export dwell time of 6.83 days and import dwell time of 5.49 days on 1 of November, but this has increased dramatically to an export dwell time of 15.16 days and an import dwell time of 7.97 days at the end of November 2021. “This figure is the highest it has ever been,” pointed out project44 analysts.
While the US port data shows a dramatic increase in the export dwell times, many of the other main ports tracked are in a completely different situation with South-East Asian ports like Singapore and Hong Kong showing marked decreases in export container dwell times.
Brazil believes this means that at these ports the berthing delays are not as pronounced as it is in the US where export containers are reaching the ports in time but simply not being able to be loaded onboard the intended ships as the ship does not have a berth yet.
In the meantime, the Chinese base ports are showing more or less similar trends in export and import dwell times but with more fluctuations month on month, as seen below.
Regarding the ports of Rotterdam and Jebel Ali, one of the main ports in Europe and in the Middle East, respectively, project44 has found that they reflected a hybrid situation with export dwell times not as bad as in the United States but not as good as in South East Asia and China.
In particular, Rotterdam had an average of 6.76 days export dwell time and 2.91 days import dwell time across 2021, while Jebel Ali had an average of 6.27 days export dwell time and 3.26 days across 2021.
Source : Container News
