News

Southern California Port Congestion Increasing, Not Affecting Bunkering: Trade

November 4th 2014

The US ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach recently reached six-month highs for vessel arrival delays and berth times amid increased congestion in Southern California, according to shipment management software company CargoSmart.

The average berth time in Los Angeles and Long Beach reached 82.6 hours and 90.3 hours, respectively, from mid-September to mid-October, CargoSmart said in its latest newsletter published.

That is up from 46.6 hours and 63 hours for Los Angeles and Long Beach from mid-April to mid‑May.

Meanwhile, average vessel arrival delay times increased to 27.5 hours and 30.4 hours for Los Angeles and Long Beach in September-October, up 71% and 33%, respectively, from the April-May time frame.

Despite the congestion, bunkering appears unaffected so far, sources have said.

“I haven’t heard of bunkering disruptions beyond just vessel schedules,” a West Coast trader said. “Congestion is only affecting container berthing, not the wet terminals to my knowledge.”

Another Los Angeles supplier said the terminal congestion has not affected bunkering demand.

“It hasn’t really trickled down to our operations,” the supplier said.

Local bunker prices have been on a downward trend lately, though that has more to do with the global decline in oil prices. The 10-day moving average of Los Angeles ex-wharf RMG 380 3.5%S was $476.85/mt November 3, down more than 13% over the past month, according to Platts data.

Also, the 10-day moving average of Los Angeles 3.5%S bunker fuel’s crack to front-month Brent crude was negative $10.86/barrel November 4th, compared with negative $9.23/b one month earlier. The crack has ranged from roughly negative $29/b to negative $8.50/b, data shows.