Port of Oakland says most vessel calls have been restored

Ships bypassing the Port of Oakland to overcome schedule delays elsewhere are resuming weekly calls here. The port said today that ocean carriers plan to restore nearly all Oakland services by May.

It’s a signal from the maritime sector that recent West Coast cargo delays are fading.

“Some vessels that were omitting Oakland have already started to return, and a look at schedules indicates that the rest will be back soon,” said Port of Oakland Maritime Director John Driscoll. “This tells us that shipping lines are confident we’re recovering from the recent logjam.”

At last week’s Navis World 2015, talk among shippers and analysts revolved around the unreliability of vessels under even “normal” circumstances, however.

John McLaurin, president of the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association also observed that Oakland could fall prey to problems beyond labor disputes and dodgy carrier KPIs.

“Here, even the ‘Occupy Movement’ can have an impact,” he said. “It’s a complex political and social environment.”

More than two dozen vessels bypassed Oakland in January and February to make up for lost time. Their return is welcome on several fronts: Importers can again expect reliable import delivery; Exporters will have ships to take their cargo overseas.

Vessel bypasses contributed to a 31.6% decline in container volume at the port in January and February. Volume is expected to improve as carriers restore full service.

The temporary service suspensions resulted from a labor-management dispute that slowed all West Coast shipping. Vessels stranded for weeks at Southern California ports skipped Oakland to reach home ports – mostly in Asia – on time.

The labor impasse ended with tentative agreement Feb. 20 on a new longshore worker contract. Since then, ports have been digging out from a heavy cargo backlog. Resumption of Oakland service is seen as one of the last steps on the road to recovery.

The two largest container carriers, Denmark’s Maersk and Geneva-based MSC have already resumed Oakland calls.

The G6, an alliance of Asian and European shipping lines, has restored two services and plans to restore two remaining services later in April. By early May, published schedules show Asian alliance CKYHE vessels back on normal rotations that include Oakland.