Los Angeles/Long Beach roll-back container dwell fee

Having seen record queues of over 100 vessels disappear entirely and long dwell containers fall by 92% over the last 14 months, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are going to scrap a container dwell fee programme that has never been implemented.

On the 25th October 2021, Los Angeles and Long Beach ports announced that they were planning a charge of $100 per container, which would increase in $100 increments per container per day, for every container left on their terminals for more than nine days, in a bid to reduce record levels of congestion.

With vessels waiting over three weeks to berth in late 2021, shipping lines – and shippers – diverted to US East Coast and Gulf ports. But as cargo volumes plummeted over the last few months, logjams at Los Angeles and Long Beach have largely disappeared

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach (LA/LB) are to scrap the container dwell fee programme that has never been implemented, effective from the 24th January 2023.

The charge was due to be implemented on 15 November 2021, but a significant improvement in the volume of ageing cargoes left on the docks resulted in the first of many postponements to the charge being levied on shipping lines, and to date it has never been implemented.

When they launched the dwell fee, the ports said that they we would prefer not to collect a dime, because that would mean that containers were moving off their docks, and it seem that that is exactly what has occurred.

Shippers have been avoiding the West Coast because of uncertainty over ILWU negotiations, which has seen volumes rise at East Coast and Gulf ports, with some ports, including New York and Houston, contemplating their own dwell fees as they handle record volumes and experience congestion.

West Coast ports are eager to rebalance cargo flows and encourage traffic to return to Los Angeles/Long Beach, with port management travelling across the US in recent weeks to assure shippers that they are ready for more business.

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