Prime Freight’s summary of a July 2022 report by FreightWaves. Read the original for the full story.
In early July 2022, 125 container ships were waiting off North American ports, and FreightWaves estimated that the cargo on board was worth more than $40 billion.
The count was 16% below the January peak but up 36% in a month, and the centre of congestion had moved east: only about a third of waiting ships were off the West Coast. Savannah now had the longest queue, with 36 vessels, ahead of Los Angeles/Long Beach, New York/New Jersey and Houston. Together the waiting ships could carry just over one million TEU.
The $40 billion figure was a rough estimate. It assumed ships were 90% full and that each import TEU held about $43,900 of goods, the 2020 average for Los Angeles. Hapag-Lloyd’s operational updates cited berth waits of 10–12 days in Savannah and up to 20 days in New York/New Jersey, high yard utilisation at several terminals and chassis shortages in Houston.
What it meant for shippers
Goods at anchor are inventory a business has paid for but cannot sell. Longer waits also raise the risk of missed delivery windows and of storage, demurrage and detention costs once boxes land, which is why importers watch berth-wait times at their specific port closely.