LOGISTICS: US port ops stable amid heavy imports; rail performance improves over last month

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Operations at US ports are stable even as import volumes are at the highest since 2022, and railroad performance has improved over the past month, according to analysts at freight forwarder Flexport.

RAILROADS
Speaking during a webinar to discuss the state of freight, Nathan Strang, director of ocean freight, US Southwest for Flexport, said its customers are seeing lower dwell times for rail cars at ports over the past month.

“I have been talking about how rail performance to and through the West Coast has been suffering a little bit,” Strang said, describing his point of view in past webinars. “I will say that we have seen real improvement.”

Strang said West Coast port operations have remained stable, with local pickup dwell at six days for Los Angeles/Long Beach, at five days in Seattle/Tacoma (SeaTac) and at four days in Oakland.

“Trucking and transload capacity remain good out of all US West Coast ports,” Strang said.

Rail traffic has risen for 19 consecutive weeks, with railcar loadings for the week ended 8 June up 5.7% year on year according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

For the first 23 weeks of 2024, ended 8 June, North American chemical railcar loadings rose 3.8% to 1,082,614 – with the US up 3.9% to 745,780.

In the US, chemical railcar loadings represent about 20% of chemical transportation by tonnage, with trucks, barges and pipelines carrying the rest.

PORTS
Strang said that apart from the Port of Charleston, South Carolina, volumes are moving really well through the East Coast ports with rail dwell averaging about two days.

Charleston is undergoing an infrastructure project on its Wando Welch Terminal to expand the docks.

Dock construction at Wando Welch terminal started on 11 March, reducing berth space from three to two berths for one year, with berths given on first come, first serve basis.

Strang said some vessels are discharging at the Port of Savannah, Georgia, and then moving material to Wando Welch via trucks, or using other terminals within the Port of Charleston as space becomes available.

Overall port omissions from all carriers are starting to reduce the extent of the delays, with six to nine days delay expected in week 24, according to a port update from Hapag-Lloyd.

ASIA PORTS CONGESTED
Strang said that things are opposite of the conditions seen during the pandemic, when US West Coast ports were dealing with huge backloads and major congestion because of the strong US consumer demand for goods.

“Shanghai and Singapore are seeing the most congestion right now, but most ports within Asia are seeing pretty heavy congestion,” Strang said.

Carriers are even omitting Singapore on certain services because of the amount of congestion in Singapore, Strang said.