San Pedro Bay — Weekly Containerships Awaiting Berths

Methodology

Each value is a point-in-time count of containerships waiting for a berth at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, as reported by the Marine Exchange of Southern California and compiled by MARAD for BTS. BTS notes that the LA-LB total includes ships in drift and holding areas, not only those at anchor. Values are published as reported, with no seasonal adjustment or other transformation; the date is the snapshot date. The series is mostly weekly (Tuesdays). From 18 October 2021 to late January 2022, BTS published weekday counts, and those daily observations are kept as published. Some weeks are missing, most notably 30 September to 18 November 2025, when no figures were released. These gaps are left empty, not filled in. The count's definition changed at the height of the 2021–22 backlog. A new queuing system began on 16 November 2021, and ships then waited up to 150 miles offshore. From 17 November to 6 December 2021, the series counts only ships near the ports, so it falls from 86 to 35. From 7 December 2021 it again includes the offshore queue (92 ships). Readings in that three-week window understate the true backlog. As a check, values match the BTS bulk CSV export of the same dataset. They are also consistent with Marine Exchange figures reported in the trade press: a record 109 ships on 9 January 2022 (the series shows 101–106 from 5 to 14 January, with no Sunday count), and zero ships on 22 November 2022 (series: 0). The source may revise figures. Projection: none. CK Economics backtests a statistical projection of this series (a recent median) by refitting it at past dates and scoring its forecasts against what happened. Its 80% range did not hold between 65% and 92% of the outcomes over the next three months, as an 80% range should, so no projection is shown.

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Source

U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Supply Chain and Freight Indicators — Number of Containerships Awaiting Berths, LA-LB (Socrata dataset y5ut-ibwt; compiled by MARAD Office of Policy and Plans from Marine Exchange of Southern California counts): https://data.bts.gov/resource/y5ut-ibwt.json — figures as published on 13 October 2026.