SIMIC

Rail container dwell times in April averaged 11.2 days, up from 10.5 days in March and the highest level of the year, according to the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association (PMSA), a nonprofit group that represents carriers and terminals, mostly in legislative matters. This is congesting the terminals and slowing down the entire port-related supply chain.

Jessica Alvarenga, manager of government affairs at PMSA, said: "The longer containers stay on terminals without getting picked up, the more unnecessary moves have to be made in order to reach older containers underneath stacks of newer ones, further contributing to the ongoing congestion."

Conversely, the average dwell time for containers that leave the terminals by truck for local delivery continues to improve, shrinking from 3.77 days in March to 3.65 days in April. Local-delivery dwell times have declined in each of the last four months from an average of 5.12 days in January.

Alan McCorkle, president of Yusen Terminals in Los Angeles, said terminals have "been dealing with this backlog since October. It hasn't gotten any better."

The BNSF and Union Pacific (UP) railroads responded that their inability to provide sufficient intermodal capacity to Southern California stems from supply chain constraints along their networks and chassis shortages at rail ramps in the US interior, but service to the West Coast will improve as those problems are addressed.

Terminal operators say improving the rail dwell times is particularly urgent because the window before holiday season merchandise begins to arrive from Asia is narrowing.

Jon Monroe, an advisor to non-vessel-operating common carriers (NVOs), said that because of congestion at ports in Asia and the US, and a shortage of vessel capacity following 10 consecutive months of record or near-record import volumes, retailers are pushing up their purchase order cycles by four to five weeks. That means the peak season could start in early July, rather than in August as it has in past years, he said.