Transpacific Shipping Container Availability Report for March 5-12
The Agricultural Marketing Service released the Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report (OSCAR) for the week of March 5-12. The weekly report contains data on container availability for westbound transpacific traffic at 18 intermodal locations in the U.S.1 from the eight member carriers of the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (WTSA).2 Although the report is compiled by AMS, it covers container availability for all merchandise, not just agricultural products.
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Weekly Estimates for Next Three Weeks on Five Types of Containers; Includes Maps, Tables
Estimates are available for the current week, as well as the subsequent two weeks, for each of the following five types of shipping containers: 20ft dry, 40ft dry, 40ft high-cube (HC), 20ft reefer, and 40ft reefer. The report has tables for each intermodal location showing availability of each type of shipping container from each carrier (carriers are anonymous).
Highlights of the report for the week of March 5-12 include:
Ports: The ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, New York, Norfolk, and Oakland are expected to have the most available containers among the reported port locations over the next three weeks. Container availability estimates in Los Angeles/Long Beach, New York, Seattle and Oakland show slight increases from the previous week, but estimates for Norfolk fell. Over the next three weeks, availability of all container types in Los Angeles/Long Beach is expected to remain unchanged except for 40ft High Cube and 40ft Reefers, which are expected to be about 25% lower.
Inland Locations: Among the reported inland locations, Chicago, Dallas and Memphis are expected to have the most containers available over the next three weeks.
Equipment: Overall, availability for all container types combined was up 1,169 units from the previous week.
- In the next three weeks, most of the ports and inland locations are projecting availability decreases except for Charleston, Memphis, New York, Oakland and Seattle.
- Container availability increased this week for each container type except 20ft refrigerated container, which decreased by over 60 percent. Refrigerated containers experienced the largest decrease in Chicago and Oakland.
- Weekly Trending:
- Availability of 40ft containers is up in Charleston, Long Beach, Memphis, New York and Norfolk.
- 40ft High Cube availability has increased in Long Beach, Memphis and New York.
- Compared to last week 40ft refrigerated containers availability is up in Houston, Long Beach, New York, Seattle and Charleston.
- 20ft container availability has increased in Columbus, Long Beach, New York, Norfolk, Oakland and Tacoma.
1The 18 intermodal locations included in the report are Charleston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Long Beach/Los Angeles, Memphis, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Norfolk, Oakland, Savannah, Seattle and Tacoma.
2These carriers are COSCO, Evergreen, Hanjin Shipping, Hapag Lloyd, Hyundai Merchant Marine, K Line, OOCL, and Yang Ming Transportation Corp.