Number of ships stuck off California coast growing

Amount of container ships stuck off California coast rising by the day

The amount of container ships stuck off the California coast while trying to bring imported goods into the country remains on the rise, further disrupting the global supply chain as the holidays inch closer.

A total of 65 vessels are now waiting to dock at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California (MESC), reports Quartz. 

The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports account for roughly one third of all imports into the US, reports The Wall Street Journal. 

The Marine Exchange informed Quartz that of the ships waiting on the coast, 23 are resting in what is known as a drift area, indicating there is no room for them to set up anchor in the water. 

The amount of container ships waiting off the coast has increased by the day, reports Quartz, which says one has been waiting off the coast of Long Beach since Aug. 25. 

“The normal number of container ships at anchor is between zero and one,” Kip Louttit, the executive director of the MESC, told Insider in July.

The longest-tenured stranded vessel, AS SERAFINA, arrived in the country from Shanghai, China and appears to be attempting to deliver electronics equipment to companies including Samsung C&T America, according to Marine Traffic. 

Supply chain disruptions have been a common occurrence during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen dramatic fluctuations between demand and supply. 

Many manufacturers had to shut down due to pandemic restrictions, and the shipping industry is now struggling to keep up with a surge in demand as economies begin to reopen.

Stranded container ships aren’t only an issue on California’s coast either, with America’s top three ports reporting logjams of increasingly-large vessels trying to deliver more goods than they can handle in time for the holiday season. 

“Part of the problem is the ships are double or triple the size of the ships we were seeing 10 or 15 years ago,” Louttit told Insider. “They take longer to unload. You need more trucks, more trains, more warehouses to put the cargo.”