Ports of Seattle and Tacoma extend hours to address ship congestion

Seattle Harbor

After President Biden’s meeting with the heads of the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach last week, the CEO of the Northwest Seaport Alliance addressed the congestion situation further north on the US Pacific coast.

In a video press conference, John Wolfe said there were about 15 cargo ships waiting to dock in the ports of Seattle and Tacoma, ports where cargo ships can normally “dock directly at container terminals,” according to an article in The Seattle Times.

Wolfe said the terminal operators in the ports have added some night shifts and some are offering Saturday operations to deal with the congestion. The NWSA and the terminal operators are discussing a standardization of the extended opening times. “That alone won’t solve this problem, however,” said Wolfe.

Trucks and storage space are scarce, he noted. “When part of the supply chain reaches its limit, it’s like a domino effect,” he said. “When a domino falls … then the other parts of the supply chain begin to fail, and that’s exactly what we’re experiencing.”

The ports encourage importers to collect their containers as soon as possible to alleviate space problems.