The US has announced that the Port of Los Angeles, among others, will begin operating 24/7 in an effort to ease the continuing supply chain jam caused by the cargo ship bottleneck in the country's major ports. 

A similar measure is also expected to be implemented at the Port of Long Beach — with both ports accounting for 40% of all imports into the US.

"Today I’m announcing that the Port of LA will begin operating around the clock 24/7 to make sure Americans can get the goods they need,” President Joe Biden said. "My Administration is working around the clock to move more goods faster and strengthen the resiliency of our supply chains."

Under the plan, the Port of LA, America's busiest cargo port, will nearly double the number of hours that cargo is transferred from container ships to trucks with the goal to process and unload 3,500 extra containers during the night each week.

Dozens of cargo ships have been anchored offshore from the ports of LA and Long Beach for weeks creating major delays, leading to a spike in shipping costs, among others.

As of Tuesday morning, there were reportedly 58 container ships offshore, down from a reported peak of 73 container ships offshore two weeks ago but still causing a major bottleneck in the country's supply chain.

As part of the deal announced by Biden, major shippers such as Walmart, FedEx, UPS, Samsung, Home Depot and Target have agreed to speed up operations to clear cargo out of the ports.

Commitments by the Los Angeles port's operator, among others, are also expected to help relieve the backlog at the California ports.

The Long Beach port has been operating 24 hours daily for seven days for roughly the past three weeks.

The supply chain issues have persisted months after the economy began to reopen and recover after vaccines lessened many of the risks from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gene Seroka, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director, said details of the said 24/7 operation are being tackled with stakeholders.