US ships at anchor, all coasts

Container ships at anchor off US ports, the East, Gulf and West coasts together and one by one, weekly, from the BTS supply-chain indicators

Data through week of Oct 19, 2026 · source last checked Oct 24, 2026 · page revised Oct 22, 2026

Cite

Container ships at anchor off US ports, all three coasts: 5 ships as of week of Oct 19, 2026, weekly (via BTS; an anchorage count, not a berth queue or dwell). The Dwell. https://the-dwell.com/anchored/all-coasts

vessels

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<a href="https://the-dwell.com/anchored/all-coasts?utm_source=embed&utm_medium=chart">
  <img src="https://the-dwell.com/charts/anchored/all-coasts/chart.png" alt="Ships at anchor off US ports, total and by coast (vessels) — Oct 20, 2026" width="720" style="max-width:100%;height:auto;border:0"/>
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<p style="font-size:12px;margin:4px 0 0">Source: <a href="https://the-dwell.com/anchored/all-coasts?utm_source=embed&utm_medium=credit">The Dwell</a> · updates automatically</p>
<p style="font-size:11px;color:#6b6b6b;margin:2px 0 0">About this data: BTS Supply Chain and Freight Indicators · Container ships at anchor off US ports, the three coast counts and their total · Coast-wide anchorage counts, not a berth queue or a dwell time · East, Gulf and West coasts · vessels · Weekly reading; the total counts only weeks all three coasts report · through week of Oct 19, 2026</p>

Free to republish with attribution. The chart updates automatically as new data lands.

About this data

Source: BTS Supply Chain and Freight Indicators
Series: Container ships at anchor off US ports, the three coast counts and their total
Basis: Coast-wide anchorage counts, not a berth queue or a dwell time
Geography: East, Gulf and West coasts
Unit: vessels
Calculation: Weekly reading; the total counts only weeks all three coasts report
Last observation: week of Oct 19, 2026
Update frequency: Weekly

The total number of container ships at anchor off US ports is 5 ships as of week of Oct 19, 2026, below its trailing-12-month normal of 8 ships. By coast: West Coast 2 ships, East Coast 3 ships and Gulf Coast 0 ships. This is the national anchorage total, the three coast counts added together for each week all three report. It is a count of ships at anchor, not a dwell time, and it is broader than any single complex's awaiting-berth queue.

Container ships at anchor off US ports fell to 5 in the week of Oct 19, down from 7 the prior week. The count sits below its trailing-12-month normal of 8 ships. By coast: East Coast 3, West Coast 2, Gulf Coast 0.

Period moves and the seasonal vs-N-yr median (a prior-years comparison). The card verdict and the friction board use each series' trailing-12-month median, the friction rule.
Period	Current	Prior	Change
Week over week	5 ships	7 ships	-28.6%
Month over month	5 ships	6 ships	-16.7%
vs 4-yr median	5 ships	45 ships	-88.8%

Ships at anchor by coast
Coast	Latest (week of Oct 19, 2026)	A week earlier	A year earlier	Trailing-12-month normal	Read
West Coast	2 ships	3 ships	n/a	1 ship	Near normal
East Coast	3 ships	3 ships	n/a	5 ships	Below normal
Gulf Coast	0 ships	1 ship	n/a	1 ship	Below normal
All coasts	5 ships	7 ships	n/a	8 ships	Below normal

Read compares each count with its own trailing-12-month normal, the rule the friction board uses. The coast counts add up to the all-coasts total in every column except the normal, which is each series' own median.

Previous weeks

Week of Oct 13, 2026

Container ships at anchor off US ports totaled 7 as of the week of Oct 12, near the trailing-12-month normal of 8 ships. The count rose by 4 ships from the prior week. By coast: West Coast 3 ships, East Coast 3 ships and Gulf Coast 1 ship.

Week of Oct 6, 2026

Container ships at anchor fell to 3 vessels as of the week of Oct 5, down from 10 the prior week, and below the trailing-12-month normal of 9 ships. All 3 anchored vessels are on the East Coast; the West and Gulf coasts show zero ships at anchor.

Week of Sep 22, 2026

The national container-ship anchorage stands at 6 ships for the week of Sep 21, down 1 from the prior week and 6 below year-ago. The total sits below its trailing-12-month normal of 9 ships and substantially below its five-year median of 31 ships.

Week of Sep 15, 2026

The national anchorage count is 7 ships as of the week of Sep 14, 2026, down from 10 the prior week and below its trailing-12-month normal of 9. Year over year the total is up 75 percent from 4 ships, though still well below the five-year median of 23.

About US ships at anchor, all coasts

This page adds up the container ships at anchor off the West Coast, East Coast and Gulf Coast into one national count, week by week, from the BTS supply-chain indicators, and keeps each coast's own line on the chart. A week appears here only when all three coasts report it, so the total is always a true three-coast sum and a gap in one coast's series never shows up as a national swing. Read the total for the widest single congestion signal the public record carries, the coast lines and the table by coast to see which seaboard is driving a move, and the per-complex queue pages for a specific gateway. A ship at anchor off a coast may be waiting for a berth at any of that coast's ports, holding for a schedule, or staged for other reasons, so this is related to but broader than the awaiting-berth queue, and it is not a dwell time.