The San Pedro Bay ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles will once again delay consideration of the “Container Dwell Fee” for another week, this time until July 15 citing continued improvement in cargo flows at the major North American ports.

In its latest announcement, the San Pedro Bay ports said since the program was announced on October 25, the two ports have seen a combined decline of 10% in aging cargo on the docks.

Despite the drop, however, this number is lower than the 27% decline in aging cargo on the docks that the two ports reported when it delayed consideration of the "Container Dwell Fee" through July 8.

This is also lower than the 31% decline in aging cargo on docks that the ports saw in the week of July 1.

"The executive directors of both ports will reassess fee implementation after monitoring data over the next week, the announcement said, adding that fee implementation has been postponed by both ports since the start of the program.

The Long Beach and Los Angeles Boards of Harbor Commissioners have both extended the fee program through July 28.

Under the temporary policy, ocean carriers can be charged for each import container dwelling nine days or more at the terminal. Currently, no date has been set to start the count with respect to container dwell time.

The ports plan to charge ocean carriers US$100 per container, increasing in US$100 increments per container per day until the container leaves the terminal.

The ports noted that any fees collected from dwelling cargo will be reinvested for programs designed to enhance efficiency, accelerate cargo velocity and address congestion impacts.