Flexport data shows sailings from China to U.S. West Coast 20 days faster than to East Coast Ports

Sailing times from China to U.S. West Coast ports are averaging twenty days faster than to U.S. East Coast ports, according to the supply chain logistics platform Flexport.

On July 29^th, Flexport’s Ocean Timeliness Indicators (OTI) reported: “This week, the Ocean Timeliness Indicators (OTI) for China to the U.S. East Coast and China to the U.S. West Coast have decreased, falling from 61 to 60.5 days and 40.5 to 39.5 days, respectively. The OTI for China to Northern Europe also decreased, dropping from 69.5 days to 68 days. The reason? Port congestion on all trade lanes is slightly improving.”

The reason for the large gap between sailing times to U.S. East Coast and U.S. West Coast ports was explained by Nerijus Poskus, Vice President of Global Ocean Procurement at Flexport. He told AJOT that due to the Suez Canal closure: “All vessels that typically sail to the U.S. East Coast via the Suez Canal are diverted to the Cape of Good Hope, which takes longer than normal routing. Global port congestion is further increasing transit times [due to vessel bunching, equipment issues, blank sailings, weather delays, etc.].”

The OTI graph below shows the sailing time gap increasing in favor of the U.S. West Coast ports beginning in 2022 and increasing in 2023 and 2024: The Flexport Ocean Timeliness Indicator (OTI) utilizes “data from Flexport’s ocean shipping operations for an expansive view of the cargo’s journey. Updated weekly, the Flexport OTI shows the transit time from the cargo ready date at the exporters’ factory or warehouse to the containers’ departure from the destination ocean port. The ocean shipping world tends to run along “trade lanes.” The three biggest east-west trade lanes carry goods from Asia to the U.S. West Coast, Asia to the U.S. East Coast, and from Asia to Northern Europe. The OTI captures the timeliness of each. As there are many transit time nuances from port to port and service to service, to show accurate trends.”

The OTI incorporates the following factors:

• Displayed transit times are based on a trailing two-week median.
• Major origin and destination ports are used as a proxy for the overall trade lane to create clear trends. Other origin or destination ports will have additional transit time considerations based on ocean carrier services.
• Asia to U.S. West Coast trade lane uses the China ports of Shanghai and Ningbo and the U.S. West Coast ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach.
• Asia to U.S. East Coast trade lane uses the China ports of Shanghai and Ningbo and the U.S. East Coast ports of New York/New Jersey and Norfolk.
• Asia to North Europe trade lane uses the China ports of Shanghai and Ningbo and the North Europe port of Rotterdam.