Port Congestion and Chassis (Un)availability

U.S. port congestion is significantly high due to upcoming U.S. Tariffs and delays related to the Lunar New Year, which will be celebrated on Tuesday, February 5th.  The ports at Los Angeles and Long Beach are seeing the most congestion, with terminals at capacity.

Plenty of extra goods are being loaded out of Asia and an overwhelming number of vessels are arriving at U.S. ports as well as inland container yards. As a result, there’s a chassis shortage, particularly in the larger markets like Chicago and Memphis. Solutions are in the works, but unfortunately not quickly enough to get the containers that are ready to be pulled out of the terminal on time. With a container backup expected to remain until after the Lunar New Year, it sounds like delays are here to stay for the next couple weeks.