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 29 still noting continuous improvements in cargo flow at the major North American ports.

Port of LA and Long Beach said in its latest announcement that since the program was announced on October 25 last year, the two ports have seen a combined decline of 26% in aging cargo on the docks. 

The ports noted that the executive directors of both ports will reassess fee implementation after monitoring data over the next week.

Meanwhile, 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 San Pedro Bay ports added.

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

Port of LA and Long Beach has said that any fees collected from dwelling cargo will be reinvested for programs designed to enhance efficiency, accelerate cargo velocity and address congestion impacts.