In an interview with CNBC Seroka said that of the 73 vessels waiting to enter the ports of LA and Long Beach at the time 23 of 10,000 teu and above were regular callers at the port, while the other 50 vessels below 10,000 teu many represented 10 newcomers to the trade this year, as well as vessels chartered in by major retailers looking to beat the capacity crunch. Unlike the regular callers many of these smaller vessels do not have advance berth reservations at the port.
“Many of these folks did not have reservations at the ports of Long Beach or Los Angeles. Even after they loaded cargo and the vessel began its journey across the Pacific. A lot of those folks are waiting for vessel space that had been normally taken up by our regular callers,” Seroka explained.
He said that while these vessels were crossing the Pacific, having already loaded in Chinese, or other Asian ports, they were trying to make berth reservations with the port or private terminal operators.
As a result the port is trying to fit the smaller ships in where they have gap, which Seroka noted were “few and far between”.
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