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Port of Los Angeles and neighboring Port of Long Beach have postponed imposing the container dwell fee for four weeks until August 26
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The decision comes amid mixed signs from the LA port docks, where boxes waiting to be shipped by rail are declining in number while long-staying boxes are increasing
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Port officials say operations have improved with the number of vessels waiting to dock down 80% from 109 in January to around 20 currently
Port of Los Angeles in California said it will postpone consideration of the “container dwell fee” for four weeks until August 26, as the number of old containers sitting on the terminals continued to creep up.
In a July 29 statement, the port said sister gateway, Port of Long Beach, also decided to defer imposing the fee.
Meanwhile, 13 container vessels were loading and unloading cargo on July 29 at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in California, and 43 more of such ships are scheduled to call the San Pedro Bay gateways in the next few days.
The dwell time fee policy was developed in coordination with the US Department of Transportation and multiple supply chain stakeholders to help clear the ports of overstaying containers.
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Under the plan, the ports will charge ocean carriers US$100 per container, increasing in US$100 increments per container per day until the box leaves the terminal, a policy aimed at encouraging stakeholders to pull out the cargo as early as possible.
Any fees collected will be reinvested in programs to enhance efficiency, accelerate cargo movement and address congestion impacts.
LA Port executive director Eugene Seroka it was business as usual as measures taken by the port since the peak season congestion last year have paid off.
“In the first half of 2022, we were going box for box with the record that we set for the first half just last year. So, the cargo got moving and the efficiencies of getting that cargo from the ship to shore and taken up by rail and trucks continued,” Seroka said on television on July 22.
“We’ve taken the number of ships that are waiting to get into the port from a high of 109 in January down by 80% to 20 vessels we’ve seen today, a real business improvement.”
Since the program was announced on Oct. 25 last year, the two ports have also seen a combined decline of 26% in ageing cargo on the docks that had been blamed in part for the congestion that had disrupted supply chains.
As of last Friday, there were 34,368 on-dock rail containers waiting to load on all LA Port terminals, down 2% from the previous day, according to the gateway’s dashboard. A total of 21,435 of these boxes have been in the port for nine days and longer.
Total import containers on the terminals numbered 61,173, declining 9% from July 28, while boxes nine days and older were down 2% to 21,413.
Empty containers on the terminals and off-dock depots of the United States’ largest port rose 5% day on day to 53,105.
This growing backlog and increasing dwell times of under 5 days for local containers and 9 days for import boxes are alerting local port authorities as 43 container ships are scheduled to dock in the next few days, possibly adding to the current space pressure.
Under the temporary policy, ocean carriers can be charged for each import container dwelling nine days or longer at the terminal. No date has been set to start the count with respect to container dwell time.
