Prime Freight’s summary of a June 2023 report by CNBC. Read the original for the full story.
In June 2023 CNBC estimated that about $5.2 billion of cargo was waiting on ships off Oakland, Los Angeles and Long Beach as labour tension slowed West Coast terminals.
The estimate was based on roughly 86,000 containers and an average value of about $61,000 per container from customs data. Contract talks between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association were still unresolved, and the employers said requests for workers were going unfilled, cutting terminal productivity.
The number of containers waiting outside port limits at Los Angeles had more than doubled in a week, truck turn times were rising, and truckers shared photos of queues at rail and road gates. Shippers feared a repeat of the pandemic backlogs. Diverting cargo to East and Gulf Coast ports was complicated by drought at the Panama Canal, where draft and weight limits meant extra cost and longer voyages for some ships.
What it meant for shippers
Labour disputes rarely close a port outright; more often they slow it, which shows up first as longer vessel waits, slower truck turns and rail delays. Watching those indicators, and weighing the cost of diverting against the cost of waiting, is how importers usually respond.