West Coast ships at anchor

Container ships at anchor off West Coast ports, weekly, from the BTS supply-chain indicators

Data through week of Sep 7, 2026 · source last checked Sep 15, 2026 · page revised Sep 15, 2026

Cite

West Coast coast: 1 ship container ships at anchor as of week of Sep 7, 2026, weekly (via BTS; an anchorage count, not a berth queue or dwell). The Dwell. https://the-dwell.com/anchored/west-coast

vessels

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<a href="https://the-dwell.com/anchored/west-coast?utm_source=embed&utm_medium=chart">
  <img src="https://the-dwell.com/charts/anchored/west-coast/chart.png" alt="Ships at anchor, West Coast (vessels) — Sep 8, 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/west-coast?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 the coast's ports · Coast-wide anchorage count, not a berth queue or a dwell time · West Coast Coast · vessels · Weekly reading · through week of Sep 7, 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 the coast's ports
Basis: Coast-wide anchorage count, not a berth queue or a dwell time
Geography: West Coast Coast
Unit: vessels
Calculation: Weekly reading
Last observation: week of Sep 7, 2026
Update frequency: Weekly

Container ships at anchor off West Coast ports is 1 ship as of week of Sep 7, 2026, near its trailing-12-month normal of 1 ship. This is a coast-wide anchorage count, ships at anchor off West Coast ports. It is related to but broader than a single complex's awaiting-berth queue, and it is not a dwell time.

West Coast ships at anchor is 1 ship as of the week of Sep 7, at its trailing-12-month normal of 1 ship. The reading is down from the 5-year median of 2 ships.

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	1 ship	0 ships	n/a
Month over month	1 ship	0 ships	n/a
Year over year	1 ship	0 ships	n/a
vs 5-yr median	1 ship	2 ships	-50.0%

Previous weeks

Week of Sep 1, 2026

Container ships at anchor off West Coast ports stood at 0 in the week of Aug 31, down 1 vessel from the prior month. The reading is below both the trailing-12-month normal of 1 ship and the 5-year median of 2 ships.

Week of Aug 25, 2026

Container ships at anchor off West Coast ports fell to 0 ships for the week of Aug 24, 2026, from 1 ship the prior week. The count sits below both its trailing-12-month normal of 1 ship and its 5-year median of 2 ships.

An earlier week

One container ship sits at anchor off West Coast ports as of the week of Aug 17, in line with the trailing-12-month normal. Year-over-year, the count has declined by 2 ships.

Week of Aug 20, 2026

Container ships at anchor off West Coast ports stand at zero as of the week of August 10, down one ship year over year. The reading is well below the trailing-12-month normal of one ship and the five-year median of three ships, per BTS supply-chain indicators.

About West Coast ships at anchor

This page counts the container ships at anchor off West Coast ports, the coast-wide anchorage picture, weekly from the BTS supply-chain indicators. It is a broader lens than the per-complex awaiting-berth queue: a ship at anchor off the coast may be waiting for a berth at any of the coast's ports, holding for a schedule, or staged for other reasons, so the two counts are related but not the same number, and neither is a dwell time. Read this page for the coast's overall pressure and the per-complex queue pages for a specific gateway. A rising anchorage count across a coast is the widest early-warning signal the public record carries.