Warning about soaring container dwell time for exports at many ports around the world

Container dwell time at ports could soar at ports around the globe as ship delays leave export containers stranded at ports, warns analyst Project44.

Container dwell time has skyrocketed for exports at many ports around the world

Analyst Project44 is warning of a repeat of the situation seen at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach (LA/LB) at ports worldwide as exports rebound with increasing container dwell time in Europe and the Middle East, although the Asian gateway ports are still showing good performance.

While LA/LB has focused on getting long-term import containers out of the port, the time spent in port for export containers has increased.

According to data from Project44, export containers at the Port of Los Angeles took an average of 11.85 days to be loaded between October 2021 and November 2021, while at the Port of Long Beach it took an average of 10.98 days.

These numbers are nearly double the backlog times of imported containers, with export containers stuck in ports waiting for ships to arrive. However, container dwell time for export showed a sharp increase in late November, at 17.49 days for the Port of Los Angeles and 15.16 days for Long Beach.

Storage time of import and export containers at the port of Los Angeles

Storage time of import and export containers at the port of Los Angeles (Source: Project44)

“If a carrier advises its customers to deliver export containers at a certain date and time based on the ETA/berthing schedule of the ship and that ship’s berthing is then delayed, then there will be a build-up of export containers waiting inside the port for the ship,” said Josh Brazil, Vice President of Data Insights at Project44.

“This appears to be what’s happening, based on the data we’re seeing. Export containers are subsequently waiting in ports for ships, which are taking longer than expected to arrive.”

Project44 now believes that docking delays are starting to affect containers' dwell times globally. According to analyst Sea-Intelligence, the schedule reliability of container shipping is only about 34%.

Looking at the port of Rotterdam - Europe's main port - Project44 shows an average export time of 6.76 days and a stay for imports of 2.91 days in 2021. While in the Middle East, the port Jebel Ali has an average export container retention time of 6.27 days and an import container retention time of 3.26 days in 2021. The Port of Rotterdam recently emphasized improving the reliability of its shipping schedule. Containers are a key factor in reducing global supply chain disruptions.

But it's not all bad news, with Singapore and Hong Kong showing "significantly reduced" container export times according to Project44. While for Chinese ports, the gap dwell times for export and import containers is almost unchanged.

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