West Coast vessel arrivals delayed significantly in 2015

Research from software provider CargoSmart finds average arrival delays much higher at West Coast ports than at East Coast ports through mid-May despite more arrivals at East Coast ports.    New data from the shipment management software provider CargoSmart has found that a third of vessel arrivals into U.S. West Coast ports in 2015 have been delayed by 12 or more hours, while a quarter of arrivals have been delayed 24 or more hours.
   The data, from CargoSmart’s monthly Innovating newsletter, covers a total of 953 West Coast port arrivals from Jan. 1 through May 15. East Coast ports saw a lower percentage of delayed arrivals – 22.8 percent of 1,217 total arrivals tracked to the East Coast were 12 hours or more delayed, while 11 percent were delayed by a day or more.
   The average length of delay was also significantly higher at West Coast ports during the period, going from more than 60 hours late in January to nearly 100 hours in March before gradually normalizing in April and May. For the first half of May, the average arrival delay at West Coast ports was nearly the same as at East Coast ports at around 20 hours.
   Among individual ports, Los Angeles saw the highest average arrival delay in 2015 at 49.3 hours, with Oakland second worst at 36.2 hours and Long Beach third worst at 32.5 hours. In contrast, the worst average arrival delay on the East Coast came at New York/New Jersey, where vessels were delayed an average of 18.5 hours.