Transpacific Shipping Container Availability Report for Jan. 2-8
The Agricultural Marketing Service released the Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report (OSCAR) for the week of Jan. 2-8. The weekly report contains data on container availability for westbound transpacific traffic at 18 intermodal locations in the U.S.1 from the eight member carriers of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA).2 Although the report is compiled by AMS, it covers container availability for all merchandise, not just agricultural products.
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Weekly Estimates for Next Three Weeks on Five Types of Containers; Includes Maps, Tables
Estimates are available for the current week, as well as the subsequent two weeks, for each of the following five types of shipping containers: 20ft dry, 40ft dry, 40ft high-cube (HC), 20ft reefer, and 40ft reefer. The report has tables for each intermodal location showing availability of each type of shipping container from each carrier (carriers are anonymous).
Highlights of the report for the week of Jan. 2-8 include:
Ports: Overall, the Ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, New York, Norfolk, and Charleston are expected to have the most available containers among the reported port locations over the next three weeks. Container availability estimates in each of these port locations fell this week compared with the previous week. However availability at each of these locations is expected to increase over the next three weeks, with the exception of refrigerated equipment in Norfolk and 40ft high-cube containers in Los Angeles/Long Beach and 40ft refrigerated containers in Charleston.
Inland Locations: Among the reported inland locations, Chicago, Dallas, Memphis and Kansas City are expected to have the most containers available over the next three weeks. Chicago, Dallas, and Memphis saw decreases over the previous week’s estimates; however, availability in Kansas City increased considerably compared with the previous week. Availability is estimated to increase each week for all container types except for 40ft dry containers in Memphis.
Equipment: Overall availability for each dry container type was down this week, while availability of refrigerated containers increased.
- Decreases at large inland and port locations led to overall decreases in availability of dry equipment this week compared with last week. Availability in Los Angeles/Long Beach and Chicago fell by nearly 25 percent. Increases in dry equipment in Cincinnati, Denver, Kansas City, Seattle, and Tacoma could not be offset by decreases in Los Angeles/Long Beach, New York, Savannah, Chicago, and Norfolk.
- However, availability of refrigerated equipment is higher this week than last week. Large increases in Chicago, Kansas City, Oakland, Savannah, Seattle, and Tacoma helped overall reefer availability.
- Overall availability for the participating carriers remains in a deficit status in Tacoma, New Orleans, Oakland, and Minneapolis.
1The 18 intermodal locations included in the report are Long Beach/Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, Tacoma, Denver, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Memphis, New Orleans, New York, Norfolk, Charleston, and Savannah.
2These carriers are COSCO, Evergreen, Hanjin Shipping, Hapag Lloyd, Yang Ming Transport Corporation, OOCL, K Line, and Hyundai Merchant Marine.