North America Supply Chain Update - APR '22

Following our last USA multimodal update at the start of April, please find below a full update. While import demand continues to hit record high levels, in positive news for supply chains, the congestion across US ports is now on a downward trend as it begins to ease.

The reduction in congestion is positive for US supply chains as all of the major ocean ports, with the exception of Oakland, saw a drop in the average time of delays through March and April. The twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach had over 100 vessels awaiting berth earlier in the year, with numbers shrinking to less than 40 at the end of April, although there is still an average wait time between 10 and 14 days across US ports. West Coast ports also saw higher demand through March 2022 when compared to East Coast ports, a role reversal of the February 2022 East/West split.

The easing of congestion is a welcome respite for US businesses, and those shipping to and from North America. With confidence in US supply chains beginning to return, March 2022 saw the second highest import volume in US history at almost 2.6million TEUs, a 44% increase from pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

The outlook is positive for the majority of North American ports however, delays at the port of Oakland have increased and yard utilisation is at 90%, prompting federal help offering financial relief for customers using its pop-up container yard. Oakland’s import/export split generally stands at 50%/50%, although imports are currently increasing whilst export rates lag.

It is expected that the USA’s easing of congestion will slow through June/July as an influx of containers hits US and European ports once bunched-up cargo vessels from China begin sailing again.

The week commencing April 11th, 2022, was the first week in 1.5 years to have under 1 million tenders per day for road freight, a recent report from truckstop.com noted. Consumer habits that changed during the pandemic led to a load per week growth from 400,000 to over 1 million, however, a combination of factors including reduced demand and capacity availability have led to numbers to dip under the 1 million mark for the first time since January 2021. 

Truckstop.com’s Chief Economist, Noel Perry, also noted that a 38% (exc. fuel) fall in spot rates could be a sign of a looming recession, whilst the decrease in activity could potentially be short-term signs of backlog and supply chain delays caused by reported Europe, Asia and US port congestion.