LA/Long Beach ships awaiting berth

Container ships waiting offshore for a berth to open at LA/Long Beach, weekly, from MARAD and the Marine Exchange

Data through week of Nov 2, 2026 · source last checked Nov 5, 2026 · page revised Nov 4, 2026

Cite

LA/Long Beach: 2 ships awaiting berth as of week of Nov 2, 2026, weekly from MARAD and the Marine Exchange (via BTS). The Dwell. https://the-dwell.com/waiting/la-long-beach

vessels

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<a href="https://the-dwell.com/waiting/la-long-beach?utm_source=embed&utm_medium=chart">
  <img src="https://the-dwell.com/charts/waiting/la-long-beach/chart.png" alt="Ships awaiting berth, LA/Long Beach (vessels) — Nov 3, 2026" width="720" style="max-width:100%;height:auto;border:0"/>
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<p style="font-size:12px;margin:4px 0 0">Source: <a href="https://the-dwell.com/waiting/la-long-beach?utm_source=embed&utm_medium=credit">The Dwell</a> · updates automatically</p>
<p style="font-size:11px;color:#6b6b6b;margin:2px 0 0">About this data: MARAD and the Marine Exchange, via BTS Supply Chain and Freight Indicators · Container ships awaiting berth · Queue count, not a dwell time · LA/Long Beach · vessels · Weekly reading · through week of Nov 2, 2026</p>

Free to republish with attribution. The chart updates automatically as new data lands.

About this data

Source: MARAD and the Marine Exchange, via BTS Supply Chain and Freight Indicators
Series: Container ships awaiting berth
Basis: Queue count, not a dwell time
Geography: LA/Long Beach
Unit: vessels
Calculation: Weekly reading
Last observation: week of Nov 2, 2026
Update frequency: Weekly

Ships awaiting berth at LA/Long Beach is 2 ships as of week of Nov 2, 2026, near its trailing-12-month normal of 1 ship. This is a ship QUEUE, not a dwell time. Well below the 2021 to 2023 congestion era, when the queue ran into the dozens.

Ships awaiting berth at LA/Long Beach rose to 2 ships for the week of Nov 2, up 1 from the prior week. The queue sits near its trailing-12-month normal of 1 ship and well below the 2021 to 2023 congestion era, when it ran into the dozens.

Period moves and the seasonal vs-N-yr median (a prior-years comparison). The card verdict and the friction board use each series' trailing-12-month median, the friction rule.
Period	Current	Prior	Change
Week over week	2 ships	1 ship	+100.0%
Month over month	2 ships	0 ships	n/a
Year over year	2 ships	n/a	n/a
vs 4-yr median	2 ships	3 ships	-33.3%

Previous weeks

Week of Oct 27, 2026

Ships awaiting berth at LA/Long Beach fell to 1 ship as of the week of Oct 26, holding near its trailing-12-month normal. The queue dropped 1 ship week over week and sits well below its four-year median of 4 ships.

Week of Oct 20, 2026

Ships awaiting berth at LA/Long Beach is 2 ships as of the week of Oct 19, down 1 from the prior week. The queue runs near its trailing-12-month normal of 1 ship, well below the 2021 to 2023 congestion peak when the queue ran into the dozens.

Week of Oct 13, 2026

Ships awaiting berth at LA/Long Beach stand at 3 this week, above the trailing-12-month normal of 1 ship, per MARAD and the Marine Exchange. The count is 45% below the four-year median. The import-friction read holds at Some pressure. The truck planning-time index (2.26, BTS) is running below its trailing-12-month normal of 4.07, so ship-side pressure is not matched on the drayage side.

Week of Oct 6, 2026

Ships awaiting berth at LA/Long Beach is 0 ships as of the week of Oct 5, 2026, down from 1 ship a month ago. The queue runs below its trailing-12-month normal of 1 ship.

About LA/Long Beach ships awaiting berth

This page tracks the number of container ships waiting offshore for a berth to open at LA/Long Beach. It is a queue, a count of ships, and it is not a dwell time: a vessel in the queue has not yet reached a berth. The count comes from MARAD and the Marine Exchange and updates weekly, so it is the most current congestion signal on the site. A rising queue is an early warning that boxes will start to sit; an empty queue is shown as zero ships, never as a zero dwell.