As the Los Angeles/Long Beach global shipping capacity continues to deteriorate, longer waiting time for berths are making returns more difficult. This situation further reduces effective global shipping capacity and thus continues supporting high rates. 

The average berth waiting time for vessels at the port of Los Angeles reaches a record of 16.9 days! From February this year to now, this figure has increased by nearly 3 times in past months.

CONGESTION CONTINUES TO WORSEN, CAPACITY FURTHER REDUCED!

Along the west coast of US, the number of vessels waiting in the line at the Los Angeles/Long Beach berthing area and waiting area grew to 83 as of Friday evening. As a result, the bottleneck of discharging is further limiting shipping capacity and continues supporting already soaring rates across the Pacific. 

Earlier this week, however, the White House touted progress in Long Beach and Los Angeles, where the number of containers parked for more than 9 days fell 20% in the week ending Nov. 8. 

It is worth noting that the Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd container Detention fees start today, with a few recent updates to note, according to the Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd announcements.

1. For those who have not been mentioned before 15th and stay for more than 8 days, no matter how long the stay is, 15th will be regarded as the boundary and the ninth day (the sixth day) will be implemented.

2. Maersk provides off-site yard service, but the capacity is limited, you need to apply separately;

3. The port authority reserves the right of final interpretation for delays caused by force majeure such as reservations and closed areas (to be assessed).

Hapag-Lloyd

1）Will the fee apply to containers retroactively to November 1, 2021?

The charge will apply to those containers on the terminal as of November 15, 2021, that are past the dwell times of 8 days for Import (truck Moves) and 5 days for Intermodal (Rail) Import.‍

For all existing overdue import containers (regardless of the number of days that they have been at the terminal), November 15 will count as the 9th day (or 6th day for intermodal) and will start at USD 100. Containers discharging after November 15 will be charged fully as per the structure mentioned below.

2） How will this fee be collected? 

We expect the Port Authorities to bill Hapag-Lloyd and we now have an agreement with eModal to collect this charge on our behalf. It is expected that this payment arrangement through eModal will be available approximately on November 22 to November 24, 2021.  Hapag-Lloyd will only hold containers pending payment AFTER eModal is live. You, as the merchant, will still be responsible for the chargeable period between November 15, 2021 and the go-live date and will be invoiced afterwards.

Maersk

• As the November 15th effective billing date on the new Container Excess Dwell fee looms, Maersk is aggressively working on developing as many solutions as possible for our customers. 

• However, we still have many containers over 9 days inside the terminals, so we are in the process of securing additional land outside the marine terminals to offer extended storage solutions. 

• If you have difficulty picking up your cargo, please reach out to your customer service representative to review which containers should be drayed to an off-dock location and we will make every effort to assist you.

Official Link: https://www.maersk.com.cn/news/articles/2021/10/28/psw-emergency-fee-surcharge