The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach announced a postponement of overdue detention fees, but the reality remains...

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach had planned to charge $100 per container starting Monday for containers shipped by truck and detained for nine days or more, and for containers shipped by rail and detained for six days or more . The detention fee will increase by $100 per day until the container is shipped .

However, the two ports announced on November 15 that the date for collecting container overdue detention fees would be postponed to November 22, arguing that the combined container accumulation at the two ports' terminals had decreased by 26% since the charging policy was announced on October 25 .

Image from: long beach official website

In addition, according to foreign media reports, another reason for the port to postpone charging may be the political risks involved . As of Monday, 19,656 containers at the Port of Long Beach will be charged overdue fees , while at least 29,249 containers at the Port of Los Angeles will be charged.

This means that on Monday alone, the total amount of fees that all carriers will have to pay will exceed $4.8 million. And because the fees will increase every day, the total will quickly rise to tens of millions of dollars a day, and even reach $100 million a day by the end of the first week .

In response, carriers said they would pass the costs on to importers. 85 business associations, including the Retail Federation , said that if implemented, the new fees would add a lot of costs to the supply chain and that the overdue detention fee plan was crazy and out of touch with reality.

The process of handling stranded containers at ports is long and difficult

While the bosses of both ports cited significant progress in cleaning up their terminals, data showed that most of the progress occurred in late October and early November and the situation on the ground has been getting worse in recent days .

Image credit: FREIGHTWAVES

At the Port of Los Angeles, the number of containers stranded for more than nine days increased 18% on Monday from Saturday, reaching the highest level since last Wednesday , with the total number of containers at the port at 76,613, higher than the number on November 4 .

Image credit: FREIGHTWAVES

According to relevant statistics , as of Monday, 45% of APM Terminals' containers were overdue and had been stranded for 9 days or more , while Everport Terminal Services had 40% overdue containers and West Basin had 48% overdue containers .

Image credit: FREIGHTWAVES

At the Port of Long Beach, the number of containers exceeding the time limit on Monday increased by 14% from the previous Saturday , a figure that was higher than the number on November 6.

Image credit: FREIGHTWAVES

Meanwhile, cargo continues to pour into the two ports from the trans-Pacific trade lane. On Friday and Monday , the number of container ships anchored outside the ports set a new record : 83. On Tuesday, the average waiting time for ships arriving in Los Angeles at anchor also reached a new peak: 16.9 days.

logistics

policy

port