A surge of imports meeting strained rail capacity has pushed up container dwell times at North American west coast ports, especially in Vancouver.
And importers face further disruption with Canadian rail workers set to vote on industrial action in their contract negotiations with the railways.
On Thursday, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority’s dashboard for rail flows showed container dwell times of more than seven days at the Centerm container facility, while Vanterm and Deltaport registered dwells of five-to-seven days.
Average dwell times climbed from 4.3 days in December to 5.2 in January, 6.7 in February and 7.3 in March.
The congestion was caused by a double-digit surge in imports. For March, the port posted a 10% rise in boxes over February, 51.7% higher than 12 months earlier. Terminal utilization reached 91% at Deltaport and 96% at Centerm.
Read more in an article from The Loadstar.