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 22 despite the apparent increase in aging cargo on the docks over the past weeks.

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

This drop is an improvement from the combined decline of 10% in aging cargo on the docks when the ports delayed consideration of the "Container Dwell Fee" through July 15 — although lower than the 27% decline in aging cargo on the docks when the dwell fee was pushed back through July 8.

"The executive directors of both ports will reassess fee implementation after monitoring data over the next week," Port of LA and Long Beach 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 October 26.

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