Data through 2026-09-13 (13 September 2026)
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Container ship queue off Los Angeles and Long Beach

Container ship queue off Los Angeles and Long Beach. The disruption ran from 2020-10-01 (October 2020) to 2022-11-22 (22 November 2022), affecting Los Angeles-Long Beach. No measured effect is published for this event; the effect section explains why.

Key facts

Started
2020-10-01 (October 2020)
Ended
2022-11-22 (22 November 2022)
Status
ended
Severity
2 Moderate
Scope
port
Chokepoints
None
Lanes
None
Countries
United States
Confidence
medium: The queueing process and its effective date come from the Marine Exchange of Southern California's own document, but the ship counts, the peak and the end of the backup rest on trade reporting of exchange figures rather than an archived primary statement.
First reported
2021-01-29 (29 January 2021)
  • Severity basis: No closure criterion applies to a queueing episode and no measured effect is available at month precision, so Moderate is proposed for editor review.

What happened

From October 2020 until 2022-11-22 (22 November 2022) container ships waited off San Pedro Bay for berths at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. The Marine Exchange of Southern California reported 60 vessels at anchor on 2021-01-28 and began holding ships in drift areas outside the anchorage for the first time since 2004. An industry working group of the exchange, the Pacific Maritime Association and the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association replaced arrival based queueing with places assigned on departure from the last port of call, effective 2021-11-16 (16 November 2021), and asked ships to wait outside a safety and air quality area extending 150 miles from the coast. The queue peaked at 109 container ships on 2022-01-09 and the exchange declared the backup over after 25 months.

Measured effect

No measured effect is published for this event. The disruption was too small or too imprecisely dated to separate from normal variation in a port-level daily series.

The start is known only to the month and the episode ran for 25 months, well beyond the effect window. A daily effect on container port calls is not computed; an editor may add explicit windows, for example around the 2022-01-09 peak, with a written reason.

Timeline

  1. A queue of container ships waiting for berths at Los Angeles and Long Beach begins to build, the start of the 25 month period later counted by the Marine Exchange of Southern California. [s5]
  2. The Marine Exchange reports 60 vessels at anchor and places three ships in drift areas outside the anchorage, the first such use since 2004. [s2]
  3. The new queueing process takes effect at Los Angeles and Long Beach. Ships are given a calculated time of arrival set when they leave their last port of call, and are asked to stay outside a safety and air quality area 150 miles from the coast. [s1] [s3]
  4. The number of container ships waiting reaches its peak of 109. [s4] [s5]
  5. The Marine Exchange count falls to 16 container ships, one at anchor and 15 outside the safety and air quality area. [s4]
  6. The Marine Exchange reports no container ships waiting and declares the backup over after 25 months, with the agreement of both ports and the two industry associations. [s5] [s6]

Cause

Trade reporting linked the queue to import volumes that outran berth, terminal and inland capacity from late 2020, and its end to falling volumes and to the queueing process that moved waiting ships far offshore. The sources cited do not give a single official cause. [s5] [s6]

Resolution

2022-11-22 (22 November 2022): The queue fell through 2022 as arriving ships slowed their Pacific crossings under the new queueing process and volumes declined. The Marine Exchange of Southern California declared the backup over on 2022-11-22 with the concurrence of both ports and the two industry associations. [s5] [s6]

Corrections

No corrections to this record as of 2026-09-16 (16 September 2026).

Sources

  1. [s1] Marine Exchange of Southern California, Container Vessel Queuing Process for the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland v.2, published 2022-06-08 (8 June 2022), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (official)
  2. [s2] The Maritime Executive, Record Vessel Backlog at Southern California Ports, published 2021-01-29 (29 January 2021), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (press)
  3. [s3] gCaptain, New Queuing Process at Los Angeles and Long Beach Ports Will Have Ships Waiting Far Out at Sea, published 2021-11-11 (11 November 2021), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (press)
  4. [s4] gCaptain, Checking In On Southern California's Containership Backup, published 2022-06-27 (27 June 2022), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (press)
  5. [s5] The Maritime Executive, Containership Backup is Declared Over in Southern California, published 2022-11-22 (22 November 2022), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (press)
  6. [s6] Supply Chain Dive, The 'ship backup has ended' at Los Angeles, Long Beach ports, published 2022-11-23 (23 November 2022), accessed 2026-09-15. Archived copy. (press)