Port of Long Beach introduces Web-based offering to provide timely information on vessel movements

The Port of Long Beach (POLB) said this week it has rolled out a new offering to its Website that serves as part of an ongoing effort to “alleviate congestion, increase transparency, and increase supply chain efficiency.”

The new online offering is entitled “Vessels at a Glance” and is comprised of a daily update that shows all vessels at berth and anchor within POLB, as well as the Port of Los Angeles (POLA).  It also includes information relating to vessel arrival and departure dates and length of stay in Long Beach, too, along with weekly updated charts that show the number of vessels at anchor at POLB and POLA that POLB officials said illustrate trends occurring over the last six months.

In recent months, both POLB and POLA have dealt with significant issues that created heavy congestion, including:
-the months-long labor dispute between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore & Warehouse Union, which impacted freight flows and port operations in the form of terminal congestion and related supply chain challenges, that came to an end with the parties reaching a tentative five-year contract agreement on February 20;
-larger vessels calling on the ports; and
-increased large vessel alliance activity

POLB said that as of Monday, March 30, the total number of container ships at anchor for POLB and POLA has dropped to 11, which is down significantly from a total of 28 on March 14.

POLB Media Relations Lead Lee Peterson told LM that the congestion issues that began in earnest last September and continued in the following months served as a driver for launching the “Vessels at a Glance” offering.

“We were fielding questions for how many ships were out there right now, when they are coming in, and when a certain ship is due to arrive at berth,” he said. “It is just much easier for everyone if that is available on the Web. More globally, we are hoping to improve the supply chain overall and put out as much information as we can. This is one way to start doing that. It is something that people can check in on to get some information they need, and as we move through the process of working to improve supply chain optimization, the information we put out there will evolve and we will continue to put out more information that will benefit [shippers].”

To date, he said the reception to this offering has been positive so far but did not decline specific metrics.

Roughly 15 years ago, he said the only thing available for this type of information was in the form of ship logs in daily newspapers, which had information on ship arrivals and departures.

In recent weeks, Peterson said that the number of ships at anchor has been falling, with nine ships awaiting berth as of Tuesday, March 31.

“The normal number should be zero,” he said. “We are getting down to single digits, but in a normal environment having even one out there is an anomaly. Having multiple ships at anchor a symptom of congestion, and the other symptoms are how much space the terminals have to work with. The number of ships at anchor is a good barometer of how we are doing.”

Not long after the February 20 tentative port labor agreement was reached, Ben Hackett, founder of maritime consultancy Hackett Associates, said in an interview that it would take six-to-eight weeks at a minimum to get things sorted out at West Coast ports.

“Carriers chartered a lot of extra ships to keep their schedules while ships were stuck in LA/LB waiting to dock,” he said. “They need to be worked through and then the next problem is to get all the equipment back into the right place and back to Asia.”

The next step, he said, will be to convince shippers that things will be back to normal and that they can safely ship via West Coast ports.  That should not be too difficult, though, as it costs a lot more to ship via Panama on the all-water route, and myriad logistics distribution facilities are on the West Coast, he added.