News / US west coast ports heading for the 'congestion zone' again next year

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Shippers and the wider supply chain need to be concerned about the resurgence of major US west coast port congestion next year, rather than writing it off as an historical anomaly.

The warning came from TradeTech president Bryn Heimbeck, who said it was “clear” the ports were not prepared to handle the mounting demand.

“One does not have to be omniscient, one just has to know there is a level that ports can handle, and that we are steadily surpassing that,” he told The Loadstar.

“I am not predicting congestion in December, or January, or February, but every year April is bigger than November, May is bigger than April and June is bigger than May. It is case of ‘we’re going into congestion zone again’, but the dialogue around this issue is off.”

He said there appeared to be a tendency to perceive congestion as “something we lived through”, rather than an event brought about by structural limitations.

Of particular concern for Mr Heimbeck is the way ports organise their import stacks, and the lack of synchronicity between all the players on this side of the supply chain, arguing that imports were, effectively, run on a system of “chance”.

“On exports, the terminal knows exactly when a box is going to depart, it is all organised and modelled clearly,” he explained. “But on the import side they never know when boxes will be collected, so they’re stacked five high.

“Essentially, the trucker has a one in five chance of where their box will be and, if it’s at the top, they have to wait for the four below it to be moved. This is what causes congestion.”

Others share Mr Heimbeck’s concerns. One source told The Loadstar it was not only getting the boxes out of stacks that caused hold-ups, there was a unique situation for truckers in the US of having to collect a chassis before they pick up boxes.

Mr Heimbeck believes that the problems are not insurmountable, adding this was “where we can use the data that we all have to provide”.

Pointing to TradeTech’s own tools, he noted that they could allow for “Customs to be cleared in transit, on the way to the port, which speeds up banking and gets carrier release. After this, importers can get appointments before arrival allowing terminals to plan their stacks”.