The San Pedro Bay ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles will once again delay consideration of the "Container Dwell Fee" for another week, this time until July 8 citing continued improvement in cargo flows at the major North American ports. 

In its latest announcement, the Port of LA and Long Beach said since the program was announced on October 25, the two ports have seen a combined decline of 27% in aging cargo on the docks. 

Despite the drop, however, this number is slightly lower than the 31% decline in aging cargo on the docks that the two ports reported when it delayed consideration of the "Container Dwell Fee" through July 1.

This is also lower than the 38% 38% decline in aging cargo on docks that the ports saw in the week of June 24.

"The executive directors of both ports will reassess fee implementation after monitoring data over the next week. Fee implementation has been postponed by both ports since the start of the program. The Long Beach and Los Angeles Boards of Harbor Commissioners have both extended the fee program through July 28," the Port of LA and Long Beach added.

Under the temporary policy, ocean carriers can be charged for each import container dwelling nine days or more at the terminal.

The ports noted that currently, no date has been set to start the count with respect to container dwell time. 

The ports plan to charge ocean carriers US$100 per container, increasing in US$100 increments per container per day until the container leaves the terminal.

The ports noted that any fees collected from dwelling cargo will be reinvested for programs designed to enhance efficiency, accelerate cargo velocity and address congestion impacts.