Why a record number of container ships are chilling off the California coast

As retailers cogwheel up for the vacation season, a grounds fig of instrumentality ships trying to bring imported goods into the US are stuck disconnected the seashore of California, different casualty of ongoing disruptions to the planetary proviso chain.

Sixty-five vessels were waiting to dock astatine the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach successful the San Pedro Bay Sept. 16, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, a grounds high. Captain Kip Louttit of the Marine Exchange told Quartz that an unprecedented 23 of these ships are successful a drift area—meaning determination is nary country for them to anchor successful the water.

The queue of instrumentality ships waiting successful the bay has been rising steadily passim the week, reaching caller highs each day. AS SERAFINA, which arrived successful Long Beach connected Aug. 25, has been there the longest, according to Louttit. The ship, which arrived from Shanghai, appears to beryllium delivering goods to companies including Samsung C&T America, according to the website Marine Traffic.

How is the shipping manufacture handling the extremity of lockdowns?

Shipping companies person been dealing with the impact of proviso concatenation disruptions since March of past year, erstwhile user request slowed owed to pandemic lockdowns and water liners were taken offline arsenic manufacturers unopen down. The shipping manufacture inactive hasn’t caught up with the surge successful request from reopened economies.

With the vacation play approaching US imports are connected the rise, creating logjams astatine large ports astir the country. A caller Bloomberg analysis recovered that the fig of instrumentality vessels waiting to participate the apical 3 US ports has been steadily rising since July.

What’s more, warehouses are progressively full, with the measurement of cargo piling up owed to proviso concatenation bottlenecks. While determination is astir 2 cardinal quadrate feet of warehouse abstraction successful Southern California, Gene Seroka, enforcement manager astatine the Port of Los Angeles, told Bloomberg on June 30 that these warehouses were “overflowing.” There often isn’t capable abstraction for instrumentality ships to unload deliveries adjacent erstwhile they bash yet dock.

“All parts of the proviso concatenation person been benignant of stacked up,” helium added.

What does this instrumentality vessel pileup mean for you? In a Sept. 16 CNBC interview, Seroka echoed the connection that galore retailers person been sending to customers implicit the past fewer weeks: get your vacation buying done early, and program for delays.