Congestion triggers TACA surcharge at Los Angeles, Long Beach

Congestion triggers TACA surcharge at Los Angeles, Long Beach    Continuing vessel delays at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have led the shipping lines of the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement (TACA) to announce a port congestion surcharge for West Coast services via the Panama Canal, effective Nov. 15.
   Set at $200 per 20-foot container and $400 per 40- or 45-foot-long box, the surcharge will be “applicable to all-water shipments to/from and via the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach,” the secretariat of TACA said.
   “The delays are averaging three to four days,” said David Jeffries, general manager of TACA. A summary of port operations in Los Angeles/Long Beach for Oct. 7 showed that 70 ships were in port on that day, of which 24 were waiting at anchor, he said. The wait for ships to be handled amounted to eight shifts, or four days.
   TACA said carriers have attempted to overcome “congestion causing vessel delays and other cost intensive challenges.”
   The port surcharge, to form part of TACA’s tariffs, will be effective until further notice.
   TACA carriers are: Atlantic Container Line, Hapag-Lloyd, Mediterranean Shipping Co., Maersk Sealand, NYK Line, Orient Overseas Container Line and P&O Nedlloyd.
   TACA’s port congestion charge could be the first move among carrier agreements and groups to pass on to shippers the additional operating costs caused by port delays and schedule disruptions.
   Last month, the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (TSA) said its member lines and their customers are grappling with transit time delays of eight to nine days that are largely beyond their control, and with infrastructure gridlock.
   Transpacific carriers are “forced to skip port calls, shift priority cargo to other sailings, burn more fuel to make up schedule time and incur added trucking costs by using alternative U.S. gateways, among other strategies,” the TSA said at the time, referring to problems on the U.S. West Coast.
   The TSA also asserted that congestion delays result in curbing the effective ship capacity provided to the market.
   Congestion in Los Angeles and Long Beach, the largest container port complex in North America, started in June. It is expected to last until the end of the transpacific peak shipping season in November or December, according to industry sources.