The San Pedro Bay ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will once again delay consideration of the “Container Dwell Fee” for another week, this time until May 20 citing continued improvement of cargo flows in the two major American gateways.
In a statement, the ports noted that since the program was announced on October 25, the two ports have seen a combined decline of 50% in aging cargo on the docks.
"The executive directors of both ports will reassess fee implementation after monitoring data over the next week," it added, noting 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," Port of LA and Long Beach jointly said.
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.