Starting months ago and continuing into late October, Los Angeles residents are met with cargo ships being stopped on the ports of Los Angeles. Many workers on these cargo ships cannot get the vessels into the ports, as they are all halted until the Los Angeles ports can get more workers to allow the ships to move forward. So, these ships are now stuck in the middle of the ocean until the ports are soon cleared for approval. According to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, more than 62 container ships were stranded on the far shores of the port near Los Angeles, and on September 26th, 73 more ships were waiting for approval to come to the port.

All of these ships have put tremendous pressure on Los Angeles’s overall ports, along with the fact that the port of Long Beach was said to be a part of the world’s busiest and biggest ports in the world. Although, because part of this is a cause of the problem, this meant that the shipments from Asia totaled around moving more than 40% of container imports just in the U.S. alone. ‘The Americans buying strength is so strong and epic that we can’t absorb all this cargo into the domestic supply chain,’ said Gene Seroka, the head of the LA Port.

Because of rising concerns, there are talks of families not receiving their packages due to massive shortages around the area of California. With the traffic building up almost every single day, it doesn’t look like it’s going to become any better any time soon. Because of the pandemic that increased unemployment, this may cause even more of a problem for the Long Beach Port’s traffic situation. Another problem that was caused by the pandemic was a sudden increase in buying over just this year alone. COVID-19 has damaged the global supply chain, making the loading of cargo ships and the high demand overall more financially difficult to obtain, which led to many shortages in goods.

The Long Beach mayor, Robert Garcia, has announced that the ports across LA are working with the Biden administration and multiple transportation departments  to reduce the lag of cargo ships, and any later-on reductions in efficiency of transported goods. Because of the high demand for more workers and more hours put into labor, all ports around the area are now expanding their hours for cargo pickup. Now the Long Beach Port is working and experimenting on new ways they can solve this problem. First, they will be opening up a 24/7 pilot program. The Long Beach Port hopes this will delay most of the problems the ports and what the ships face. 

Another port that has had the same issue as the Long Beach Port is the Savannah Port in Georgia. The ports both face the high surging demand for this year, and it may last till December until they are able to unclog the trafficking problem with the ports.