35,700 Containers Wait for Trains at LA and Long Beach Ports

Nearly 35,700 import containers were waiting for on-dock trains at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach this week. Record cargo volumes and reported railcar shortages have slowed freight moving inland.

The count was 35,688 containers on 26 October, according to The Dwell's compilation of the ports' daily rail reports. Of those, 10,562 had been on the terminals for at least nine days. The figures count individual containers, not TEUs, and they are a snapshot, not an average wait.

Los Angeles worse hit

In Los Angeles, 8,133 of 19,626 rail-bound containers had waited nine days or longer, or 41.4%. In Long Beach the figure was 2,429 of 16,062, or 15.1%.

Average rail-container dwell across the complex rose to 7.19 days in September from 6.75 in August, according to Pacific Merchant Shipping Association data. Dwell for containers leaving by local truck rose to 3.18 days from 2.95. Both ports set monthly records in September: about 1.04 million TEUs in Los Angeles and 997,177 in Long Beach. The association tied the longer dwell to the extended peak season and heavy flows.

Broker C.H. Robinson named Southern California intermodal railcar shortages as a constraint in its October update. A Union Pacific spokesperson said strong volumes had tightened car supply, but the railroad's buffer resources had positioned it to keep freight fluid.

Port executives respond

Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said the two ports had handled about 8 million TEUs in four months. He said rail dwell had been stable at "five-plus" days but higher than he would like. In the past three weeks, he said, westbound train assets had risen six-, eight- and tenfold.

Noel Hacegaba, chief executive of the Port of Long Beach, said smaller inland rail hubs were seeing longer delays than major destinations. He pointed to the Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility, which is meant to cut ship-to-rail time from four days to 24 hours. BNSF declined to comment beyond its customer advisories.

The Dwell's tracker showed one ship waiting for a berth in the week of 26 October. The Pacific Maritime Association has warned that a possible strike on 1 November by about 250 port watchmen could affect eight container terminals.

Source: FreightWaves