Ship queue

Below normal

LA/Long Beach ships awaiting berth

Container ships waiting offshore for a berth to open at LA/Long Beach, weekly, from MARAD and the Marine Exchange

Data through week of Aug 24, 2026 · source last checked Sep 1, 2026 · page revised Sep 1, 2026

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About this data
Source
MARAD and the Marine Exchange, via BTS Supply Chain and Freight Indicators
Series
Container ships awaiting berth
Basis
Queue count, not a dwell time
Geography
LA/Long Beach
Unit
vessels
Calculation
Weekly reading
Last observation
week of Aug 24, 2026
Update frequency
Weekly

Ships awaiting berth at LA/Long Beach is 0 ships as of week of Aug 24, 2026, below its trailing-12-month normal of 1 ship. This is a ship QUEUE, not a dwell time. Well below the 2021 to 2023 congestion era, when the queue ran into the dozens.

Ships awaiting berth at LA/Long Beach fell to 0 this week, down 100% week over week and 100% below the five-year median (per MARAD). The friction read is Flowing, with the truck planning-time index at 2.19 (per BTS), below its trailing-12-month normal of 4.07. The West Coast ships-at-anchor count also cleared to 0 this week.

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.
PeriodCurrentPriorChange
Week over week0 ships1 ship-100.0%
Month over month0 ships1 ship-100.0%
Year over year0 ships1 ship-100.0%
vs 5-yr median0 ships1 ship-100.0%

Previous weeks

An earlier week

Ships awaiting berth at LA/Long Beach stood at zero for the week of Aug 10, below its trailing-12-month normal of 1 ship. The queue cleared year over year, down from 1 ship a year ago.

About LA/Long Beach ships awaiting berth

This page tracks the number of container ships waiting offshore for a berth to open at LA/Long Beach. It is a queue, a count of ships, and it is not a dwell time: a vessel in the queue has not yet reached a berth. The count comes from MARAD and the Marine Exchange and updates weekly, so it is the most current congestion signal on the site. A rising queue is an early warning that boxes will start to sit; an empty queue is shown as zero ships, never as a zero dwell.