Transpacific Shipping Container Availability Report for March 20-26
The Agricultural Marketing Service released the Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report (OSCAR) for the week of March 20-26. 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 20-26 include:
Ports: The ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, New York, Norfolk, and Charleston are expected to have the most available containers among the reported port locations over the next three weeks. Container availability estimates for Norfolk and Charleston increased over the previous week and estimates for Los Angeles/Long Beach and New York fell. Over the next three weeks, overall availability in New York and Los Angeles/Long Beach is expected to increase. Decreases are expected in Norfolk and Charleston.
Inland Locations: Among the reported inland locations, Chicago, Dallas, and Memphis are expected to have the most containers available over the next three weeks. Availability at each location is expected to increase except for refrigerated containers in Chicago.
Equipment: Overall, availability for all container types combined was down more than 4,600 units compared with the previous week—some of which could be due to one less carrier reporting.
- Container availability decreased this week for each container type except 20ft refrigerated containers. Availability of 40ft refrigerated containers decreased the most overall, with significant decreases in Chicago, Oakland, Tacoma, Houston, Los Angeles/Long Beach, and Seattle.
- Availability of 20ft refrigerated containers is up in Los Angeles/Long Beach, Norfolk, and Savannah.
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.