Transpacific Shipping Container Availability Report for Jan. 30 - Feb. 5
The Agricultural Marketing Service released the Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report (OSCAR) for the week of Jan. 30 - Feb. 5. 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. 30 - Feb. 5 include:
Ports: The ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, New York, Norfolk, and Oakland are expected to have the most available containers among the reported port locations over the next three weeks. The container availability estimates have decreased over the previous week for all these ports except Norfolk and Oakland. Availability in Oakland surpassed Charleston this week with a significant increase in 40ft dry, high-cube, and refrigerated containers.
Inland Locations: Among the reported inland locations, Chicago, Dallas, Memphis, and Columbus are expected to have the most containers available over the next three weeks. Except for Chicago, each of these locations saw decreases over the previous week’s estimates.
Equipment: Overall, availability for all container types combined was down more than 3,500 containers this week over the previous week.
- U.S. import and export container volumes are typically lower this time of year, causing ocean carriers to pull vessel capacity out of service. This results not only in fewer vessels calls available for U.S. exporters, but also fewer containers, particularly in traditionally deficit locations. Consequently, more than half of the ports reported a decrease in total container availability over the next three weeks.
- Carriers report that Houston and Tacoma show a deficit in container availability over the next three weeks.
- Overall, availability for 40ft highcube containers is the highest this week of the five container types reported.
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.