More congestion predictions for the Port of LA
Another round of predictions all point to congestion at the Port of Los Angeles for the coming months.
By Michael McGrady, Maritime Direct Americas & Pacific Correspondent
LOS ANGELES — According to a series of new predictions from shipping and retail executives, the congestion at the Port of Los Angeles is expected to persist for several more months. These predictions correspond to others that Maritime Direct has reported on previously.
Transport Topics reports one of these voices came from John Foley, the chief executive officer of exercise equipment company Peloton.
“You may have read about the port congestion in Los Angeles and Long Beach, where shipping container volume has doubled in the last 12 months,” Foley said on Feb. 4, in a letter to shareholders that the publication viewed. “The global increase in shipping traffic has added significant delays to all sorts of goods coming into U.S. ports, including Peloton products.”
“When a container is waiting at a warehouse, it’s now sitting for about eight days. And that’s usually three and a half days during pre-pandemic times,” said Gene Seroka, the executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, in a Twitter statement on March 8. In a statement to Dan Ronan, the associate news editor for Transport Topics that authored the above-mentioned report, Seroka added that “we must vaccinate all of our port workers as quickly as possible.”
“There are about 100,000 people who work at this port complex every day, and we have a lot of people we have to maintain health and safety to keep the economy running,” Seroka said in that statement.
