Backlog grows as 35,000 containers await rail service at LA–Long Beach

Nearly 35,700 import containers were waiting for on-dock trains at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach this week, as record cargo volumes and reported railcar shortages slowed the movement of freight inland.

Of the 35,688 containers awaiting rail service on Oct. 26, 10,562 had been on the terminals for at least nine days, according to The Dwell’s compilation of the ports’ daily rail reports. The figures count individual containers, rather than twenty-foot-equivalent units, or TEUs, the standard measure of port cargo volume.

The backlog was more severe at Los Angeles, where 8,133 of the 19,626 containers awaiting trains had waited nine days or longer. At Long Beach, 2,429 of 16,062 rail-bound containers had reached that threshold. That put the share of longer-waiting containers at 41.4% in Los Angeles, compared with 15.1% in Long Beach.

The daily inventory figures follow a broader increase in the time containers spend on marine terminals. Average rail-container dwell across the port complex rose to 7.19 days in September from 6.75 days in August, according to Pacific Merchant Shipping Association data. Average dwell for containers leaving by local truck increased to 3.18 days from 2.95 days.

This story was originally published by FreightWaves. Read the full story at FreightWaves →