California’s San Pedro Bay ports are aiming to move 40 percent of stranded containers by Sunday, officials say, amid a historic ship logjam that's threatening to derail holiday shopping and supply chain issues across the U.S.
‘Santa’s going to need a little extra help this year,’ Port of Long Beach chief operating officer Noel Hacegaba told DailyMail.com on Wednesday. ‘We recognize that 40 percent is a big number, and it will require an unprecedented, coordinated effort, but it must be done.’
The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports – which move about 40 percent of shipped cargo entering the U.S. – are struggling with an unprecedented backlog that’s slowing the nation’s overall supply chain ahead of the holidays.
The Biden administration has come under fire for its 'too little, too late' response to the backlog after it announced West Coast shipping ports would be running around the clock to ease bottlenecks in the system.
The Marine Exchange of Southern California reported 105 vessels at anchor October 26, including 77 container ships carrying an estimated $6billion in goods
Containers are seen on a container ship docked at Long Beach Ports in Los Angeles, California, United States on October 14, 2021.
Despite White House efforts, port officials have struggled to keep pace with the inflow of goods as abandoned empty containers create congestion.
LA and Long Beach port officials previously said that they’ll bill carriers $100 for each day their containers linger starting November 1.
Hacegaba said the 50,000 containers they hope to move by Sunday are among containers that have been sitting at the terminal for nine days or more. Containers that leave the terminal on the train will be fined for sitting six days or more.
‘When you put those two categories together, we estimate that that's roughly 40% of all the containers that are sitting on the terminals today,’ Hacegaba said.
‘Santa’s going to need a little extra help this year,’ Port of Long Beach chief operating officer Noel Hacegaba told DailyMail.com
Officials are aiming to move 40percent of containers lingering at the ports by Sunday
‘The objective is to get those containers that have been dwelling on the terminal for that number of days to be evacuated as soon as possible.’
As of Wednesday morning, there were 77 container vessels at anchor carrying an estimated 600,000 container units.
‘We need immediate action,’ Hacegaba said. ‘We need to bring those ships to berth as quickly as possible. We need boxes out of our terminal to make room for those boxes sitting out on ships.’
The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports – which move about 40 per cent of shipped cargo entering the US – are struggling with an historic container ship backlog
By his estimates, there is about $6billion in goods queuing to unload right now.
Stepping up efforts to evacuate lingering containers is the latest step port and government officials have taken to alleviate the supply backlog.
About 65 vacant acres of vacant land was made available to park empty containers, and the port has expanded operations by opening earlier and closing later.
One terminal is open 24hours a day, four days a week, while other terminals are open Friday nights and weekends.
‘We need to continue to find ways to move containers out of our terminal to
