US East Coast arrival delays, berth times grew in June The top four ports on the U.S. East Coast saw increases in both arrival delays and berth times in July, partially because of a surge in traffic from cargo diversions to the East Coast during peak season. CargoSmart’s monthly newsletter detailed the logistics software firm’s findings, which showed a rise in delay times at the ports of New York and New Jersey, Savannah, Charleston and Norfolk from the end of May through the end of July. As a result of labor negotiations at U.S. West Coast ports, some shippers diverted cargo to the East Coast to avoid any potential labor slowdowns. As peak-season volumes began to come into play, there were reports of longer shipping times to East Coast ports that are seeing between 15 and 20 percent more cargo on average. “With the increased cargo volume and tightened capacity, it’s possible that the cargo diversions to the East Coast may have been a factor in the average vessel arrival delay increasing at each port,” CargoSmart said. CargoSmart found arrival delays at all four ports grew from June to July. In NY-NJ, the largest East Coast port, arrival delays jumped 2.1 hours to an average of 19.4 hours. Charleston’s arrival delays averaged 1.6 hours more in July than in June, at 18.9 hours, and Norfolk’s average of 22 hours in July was 2.4 hours higher than June’s average. The Port of Savannah showed the largest jump, with a July average of 22.3 hours, 6.1 hours higher than its June average. Berth times also increased at all four ports from June to July. Berth times increased at NY-NJ by 6 percent between June and July, bringing the average time in berth to over 24 hours. Charleston’s berth time jumped 4 percent to average 13.1 hours in July, and Norfolk’s average berth time grew by 4.2 percent to 14.9 hours. Savannah, once again, showed the largest month-over-month change, with July berth times increasing 6.9 percent to an average of 17 hours. While some of the increased traffic could be short term due to diversions from the West Coast, East Coast ports are expecting to handle more cargo after the completion of the Panama Canal expansion. The expansion will allow larger ships — some as big as 13,000 TEUs — in trans-Pacific trade lanes to call at East Coast ports. The ports are trying to speed up dredging and infrastructure improvements in order to handle the ships, which could make their way to the East Coast when the expansion is completed in 2016. “Will the added volumes lead to bigger port congestion problems?” CargoSmart asked. “The ports must take this opportunity to review the current capacities as arrival delays do not solely affect overall competitiveness, but also impact the entire supply chain from suppliers to customers.” CargoSmart’s report analyzed vessel data from the top 21 carriers and included data from more than 1,000 vessel arrivals for two time periods: May 28 through June 28 and June 29 through July 29. JOC NEWS - AUG 14 2014
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 17:42:40 +0000
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