The backup of container ships off Southern California’s coast that was at the heart of U.S. supply chain congestion during the Covid-19 pandemic has effectively disappeared.
But the biggest gain likely has come from fewer boxes reaching the busiest U.S. seaport complex for container imports.
By January 2022, only 31% of container ships arrived at ports on time, down from about 70% before the pandemic, according to Sea-Intelligence.
By September 2021, the average cost for shipping a container from Asia to the U.S. West Coast exceeded $20,000, a sixfold increase from a year earlier, according to the Freightos Baltic Index.
Last week, the average cost to ship a container from Asia to the U.S. West Coast had declined 84% from a year earlier to $2,720.