2022-10-27
Volumes remain relatively unchanged since September. The U.S. East and Gulf Coasts continue to outpace the West Coast in terms of overall year-over-year import container volume growth in part due to shipper concerns over potential disruptions resulting from the still unresolved ILWU / PMA contract negotiations.
Congestion on the West Coast has eased significantly, and we are seeing the lowest year-to-date volume of 14+ day longstanding import cargo units on the terminals.
There have been improvements on the West Coast ports with the exception of Oakland where the backlog of vessels stands at 16 ships. Vessel wait times are up to 25 days, in part due to two cranes being down for maintenance. The vessel line up, yard congestion, and rail status markers are in the red.
Los Angeles and Long Beach have both seen improvements. The number of vessels within 150 nautical miles of San Pedro Bay has remained below 10 vessels for several weeks and wait times have been reduced to under a day. Currently there are 44 vessels heading towards the Bay, with 22 allocated for each port. Rail availability continues to stabilize and improve.
Congestion and delays continue in the Pacific Northwest, particularly at Centerm in Vancouver where vessel waiting times range up to 28 days.
With the shift of cargo volumes to the East and Gulf Coast several ports remain congested. Houston is experiencing congestion with vessel wait times up to 15 days at Bay Port with its three available berths. Barbours Cut is faring better with just 2-to-4-day vessel wait times for its six berths. In September, Port Houston handled its second highest month ever following its August 2022 record month. September year-over-year volumes were up 31%.
There are approximately 30 container ships at anchor in Savannah. Vessel waiting time ranges from 10-20 days. The Port of Savannah stated that it expects to clear the need for vessels to wait at anchor by the end of November. Anticipated improvements are due to higher productivity forecasted before the upcoming holidays and decreased import volume.
We continue to see improvements at Newark PNCT and Elizabeth APMT. Vessel wait times for both terminals are down to 0-4 days.
Evolving consumer buying patterns and a pandemic-driven warehousing boom have resulted in a corresponding growth in demand for a robust logistics workforce. With the U.S. 3.5% unemployment rate at 50-year lows and year-over-year average hourly earnings on the rise, the battle for attracting and retaining the best talent is particularly fierce. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics ranks “Transportation and Warehousing” among the industries with the largest wage and salary employment growth. The sector employed nearly 6.6 million people as of 2021 having grown by 1.8 million in the last decade, with projections the sector will add another 466,000 jobs through 2031.
Key Notes on North American Supply Chains