Eighteen more vessels are slated to call the port complex over the next three days, which is one more ship call than compared with the same period in 2020.

The number of container ships waiting to berth in Southern California has exceeded the number of ships at berth every day but two since Christmas, with the ships waiting to call marine terminals exceeding levels seen during the 2014-15 labor crisis.

In the 18 days since Dec. 25, only on Jan. 11 were there more ships at berth than at anchor, with 35 ships at marine terminals and 34 ships waiting to unload. The number of ships at and awaiting berth was the same at 27 on Dec. 27. As of Tuesday, there were 31 ships at anchor and 29 at berth, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, the agency that manages ship traffic.

During the 2014-15 West Coast labor crisis, the most container ships at anchor was 28 on March 15, 2015. That was exceeded this year on Jan. 8, when there were 37 ships at anchor.

18 more vessels are slated to call the port complex over the next three days, which is one more ship call than compared with the same period in 2020. Of the 31 container ships awaiting berth, a dozen have capacities of more than 10,000 TEU, including CMA CGM’s Marco Polo, which has 16,020 TEU of capacity.

Six straight months of near-record cargo volumes have congested the entire Southern California supply chain beyond its capacity.

Before the 2014-15 West Coast port crisis, the last time the harbor was so congested was in 2004, when labor shortages at Union Pacific Railroad led to 65 ships at anchor.