Port congestion easing in Asia, US still battles torrent of imports

There are indications that congestion is easing ahead of the holiday season at Asia’s largest ports.…

There are indications that congestion is easing ahead of the holiday season at Asia’s largest ports. This might be a positive step for key trade gateways in the US, that are still battling an influx of imports.

Total traffic in Shanghai-Ningbo declined by 0.2% from the previous week and Hong Kong-Shenzhen’s ship count dropped 10.4%. Singapore, Asia’s third-largest trade hub, saw a week-on-week drop of 14.7% as a backlog visible since early November looked to be largely cleared.

However, across the Pacific queues of vessels remained elevated in Los Angeles and Long Beach, California. Congestion levels at those neighboring ports rose 6.7% from the prior week. As of early Friday, at least 75 container ships were waiting for berth space to offload after politicians toured the ports two days ago, touting a 32% drop in the number of containers sitting on the docks for more than nine days.