Ports of LA and Long Beach put container dwell fee on hold for another week

Thanks to “continued progress moving containers off marine terminals,” the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have again postponed the container dwell fee they had planned to implement starting on November 15, according to a statement issued by the two ports on November 22. The fee has now been delayed for two weeks. The ports said they will reassess fee implementation after another week of monitoring data.

Since the fee was announced on October 25, the two ports have together seen a decline of 33% in aging cargo on the docks. The number of container vessels waiting in San Pedro Bay to unload at the ports has dropped from a high of 83 on November 12 to 61 yesterday.

If implemented, the temporary policy would see ocean carriers charged $100 a day for each import container. In the case of containers scheduled to move by truck, they would be charged for every container dwelling nine days or more; for containers moving by rail, they would be charged if a container has dwelled for six days or more.