# The Dwell > U.S. port congestion data: the plain-English congestion board for importers. The ship queue, the truck planning-time index and the monthly TEU volumes at the big US gateways, plus one rules-based import-friction read per complex, from the public record. Container (box) dwell, the number the trade means by dwell, has no structured national feed, but the Port of Los Angeles posts a daily import-container dwell-age report we collect, the weekly ship queue is the freshest congestion signal, and every dwell number is labeled with its exact clock. One brief a week. No forecasts, no routing calls. _Data through Sep 1, 2026._ ## Latest issue: Savannah Friction Read at Some Pressure, Ship Queue Doubles to 4 (Sep 1, 2026) Savannah's friction read sits at Some pressure as ships awaiting berth doubled to 4, above the trailing-12-month normal of 2. LA/Long Beach cleared to zero. The US total is 8 ships, still 50% below the five-year median. Read: https://the-dwell.com/issues/2026-09-01 · Markdown: https://the-dwell.com/issues/2026-09-01.md ## The data ### Friction board The hero: one plain read per port complex, flowing, some pressure, or congested, built by a fixed rule from where its ship queue, truck planning-time index and loaded-import TEU sit against their trailing-12-month normal. - [The import-friction board](https://the-dwell.com/friction/import-friction.md) — Flowing (as of week of Aug 24, 2026) ### Port complexes The complex hub pages: the import-friction read at LA/Long Beach, NY/NJ and Savannah and the live metrics behind each, the ship queue, the truck planning-time index, and loaded-import TEU, in one place. - [LA/Long Beach port congestion](https://the-dwell.com/port/la-long-beach.md) — Flowing (as of Aug 25, 2026) - [NY/NJ port congestion](https://the-dwell.com/port/new-york-new-jersey.md) — Monthly truck-index reading (no live ship queue for this complex); last quoted Jun 1, 2026 - [Savannah port congestion](https://the-dwell.com/port/savannah.md) — Some pressure (as of Aug 25, 2026) ### Ship queue Container ships awaiting berth, the count of ships waiting offshore for a berth to open, weekly from MARAD and the Marine Exchange. This is a queue, not a dwell time, and it is the most current congestion signal on the site. - [All US container ports ships awaiting berth](https://the-dwell.com/waiting/all-us.md) — 8 ships (as of week of Aug 24, 2026) - [LA/Long Beach ships awaiting berth](https://the-dwell.com/waiting/la-long-beach.md) — 0 ships (as of week of Aug 24, 2026) - [Savannah ships awaiting berth](https://the-dwell.com/waiting/savannah.md) — 4 ships (as of week of Aug 24, 2026) ### At anchor Container ships at anchor off the East, Gulf and West Coast ports, weekly. The coast-wide anchorage count — related to but broader than a single complex's berth queue, and the widest early-warning lens the public record carries. - [East Coast ships at anchor](https://the-dwell.com/anchored/east-coast.md) — 7 ships (as of week of Aug 24, 2026) - [Gulf Coast ships at anchor](https://the-dwell.com/anchored/gulf-coast.md) — 1 ship (as of week of Aug 24, 2026) - [US ships at anchor, all coasts](https://the-dwell.com/anchored/all-coasts.md) — 8 ships (as of week of Aug 24, 2026) - [West Coast ships at anchor](https://the-dwell.com/anchored/west-coast.md) — 0 ships (as of week of Aug 24, 2026) ### Truck index The truck planning-time index around each complex, the FHWA measure of how much longer a drayage trip takes than free-flow. The truck-side congestion signal, monthly. - [LA/Long Beach truck planning-time index](https://the-dwell.com/pti/la-long-beach.md) — 2.19 (as of Jul 2026) - [NY/NJ truck planning-time index](https://the-dwell.com/pti/new-york-new-jersey.md) — 2.37 (as of Jun 2026) ### Container volume Monthly container volume by port in TEU, split into loaded imports, loaded exports and empties, with the month-over-month, year-over-year and versus-2019 reads. Loaded imports are the import-demand signal. - [Charleston container volume (TEU)](https://the-dwell.com/teu/charleston.md) — 96,849 TEU (as of Jun 2026) - [Houston container volume (TEU)](https://the-dwell.com/teu/houston.md) — 177,097 TEU (as of Jun 2026) - [Long Beach container volume (TEU)](https://the-dwell.com/teu/long-beach.md) — 387,025 TEU (as of Jun 2026) - [Los Angeles container volume (TEU)](https://the-dwell.com/teu/los-angeles.md) — 530,558 TEU (as of Jun 2026) - [New York/New Jersey container volume (TEU)](https://the-dwell.com/teu/new-york-new-jersey.md) — 388,842 TEU (as of Jun 2026) - [Oakland container volume (TEU)](https://the-dwell.com/teu/oakland.md) — 78,114 TEU (as of Jun 2026) - [Savannah container volume (TEU)](https://the-dwell.com/teu/savannah.md) — 240,445 TEU (as of Jun 2026) - [Seattle/Tacoma container volume (TEU)](https://the-dwell.com/teu/seattle-tacoma.md) — 94,359 TEU (as of Jun 2026) - [Virginia container volume (TEU)](https://the-dwell.com/teu/virginia.md) — 134,859 TEU (as of Jun 2026) ### Busiest ports The tracked US container ports ranked by loaded-import volume, year to date and latest month, in TEU. One canonical ranking, updated in place — the import-demand read, not a congestion reading. - [Busiest US container ports by import volume](https://the-dwell.com/busiest/us-container-ports.md) — Los Angeles leads at 2,675,892 TEU YTD 2026 (as of Jun 2026) ### Empty share The empty-container share of monthly box volume at each tracked US port: repositioned empties as a share of loaded imports, loaded exports and empties. A trade-imbalance and equipment-flow read, never a congestion signal. - [Empty-container share by US port](https://the-dwell.com/empty/us-container-ports.md) — Long Beach highest at 38.1% empty (as of Jun 2026) ### What ports import What actually comes in through a port, by commodity chapter, from the U.S. Census International Trade data — customs value and containerized weight. A Los Angeles pilot; a separate data system from the container-count (TEU) pages. - [What the Port of Los Angeles imports](https://the-dwell.com/imports/los-angeles.md) — Electrical machinery and electronics leads at $4.84B (June 2026) (as of Jun 2026) ### LA box dwell The Port of Los Angeles daily import-container inventory, split by dwell age (0-4, 5-8 and 9-plus days). The one genuinely public box-dwell read: a daily inventory-age distribution, never an average dwell time or vessel dwell. - [Los Angeles import-container dwell](https://the-dwell.com/boxdwell/los-angeles-import-containers.md) — 11.2% of import boxes at 9+ days (4,981 boxes of 44,647 boxes) (as of Sep 1, 2026) ### Why congestion is moving Why US port congestion is rising or easing right now, updated every week the data moves. - [Why is US port congestion easing right now?](https://the-dwell.com/why/port-congestion-easing.md) — Broadly steady for 3 weeks (as of week of Aug 24, 2026) - [Why is US port congestion rising right now?](https://the-dwell.com/why/port-congestion-rising.md) — Broadly steady for 3 weeks (as of week of Aug 24, 2026) ## More - [Key statistics](https://the-dwell.com/stats.md) - [Guides](https://the-dwell.com/guides.md) - [Issue archive](https://the-dwell.com/issues) - [Agent index (llms.txt)](https://the-dwell.com/llms.txt) - [RSS feed](https://the-dwell.com/rss.xml)