Los Angeles Port Tracker
Port of Los Angeles · USA · UN/LOCODE USLAX
Free live Los Angeles port congestion today: San Pedro Bay vessel wait times, ships at anchor, berth occupancy and delay risk for LA & Long Beach, from AIS.
Open the live Los Angeles vessel map →
See live demurrage charges accruing at Los Angeles right now →
Port of Los Angeles conditions — last 24 hours (as of 8 Oct 2026, UTC)
Port of Los Angeles was holding 11 commercial vessels at anchor. The median stay was 20.8 hours. 21% of port calls anchored at all; the rest went straight to a berth.
- Congestion level
- Moderate congestion
- Commercial vessels at anchor
- 11
- Median time at anchorage, excl. bunkering (last 7 days)
- 20.8 hours
- Completed anchorage stays measured
- 6
- Berth occupancy
- 64%
- Port calls that anchored at all (last 30 days)
- 21% (596 of 2,783 measured calls)
Measured from public AIS data: time spent at anchor inside the port area by commercial vessels (IMO number, 100 m and longer), with bunkering anchorages excluded from the headline figure. It covers all anchorage time — including waiting for orders — not only the queue for a berth, so it is a different measure from the berth-queue figures published elsewhere and can read higher or lower than them. Ships that went straight to a berth are not in the median at all, so the share of calls that anchored is the denominator it should be read against — it is not comparable with a figure averaged over every arrival, or with whole-turnaround time. This is a dated snapshot; the live Port of Los Angeles tracker updates continuously.
Port of Los Angeles anchorage time by ship type — last 30 days (as of 8 Oct 2026, UTC)
| Ship type | Anchorage stays | Median time at anchorage |
|---|---|---|
| Cargo | 154 | 12.7 hours |
| Tanker | 128 | 28.5 hours |
| Container | 67 | 5.2 hours |
| Passenger | 21 | 87 minutes |
Los Angeles and Long Beach have run a vessel queuing system since 2022. A container ship bound for San Pedro Bay is given its berth slot while still far offshore and approaches when the slot is ready, so it has no reason to queue at anchor. That shows in the counts rather than the hours: a port handling thousands of container calls a month produced only the handful of container anchorages in the table above, while tankers, which are not in that system, anchor in numbers and for far longer. The offshore wait itself happens roughly 150 nautical miles out, beyond the monitored area and beyond the range of shore-based AIS, so it is not measured here and no figure on this page should be read as the container queue.
Same measurement as the headline figure — commercial vessels with an IMO number, 100 m and longer, measured from public AIS — grouped by the ship type each vessel broadcasts. Stays are tracked for at most 72 hours; where a share reaches that cap, the median understates the tail.
About Port of Los Angeles
Port of Los Angeles is the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere, handling over 10 million TEUs annually alongside the adjacent Port of Long Beach. Together they form the San Pedro Bay port complex — the entry point for roughly 40% of all US container imports. PortInsight tracks the whole complex as one zone: ships holding in the San Pedro Bay anchorage and drift areas, how long each has been waiting, how much of the berth line is occupied, and how today compares with the 7-day and 30-day baseline. Trans-Pacific arrival bunching, chassis and drayage capacity, and Alameda Corridor rail flow are what usually decide whether a vessel berths on arrival or joins the queue.
Strengths
- Largest container port complex in the Western Hemisphere, handling ~40% of all US container imports
- Multiple transcontinental rail connections via the Alameda Corridor with direct links to US inland hubs
- Large, mature logistics ecosystem: truckers, chassis providers, warehouses, and 3PLs serving the port complex
- Proximity to the Los Angeles–Inland Empire distribution hub, the largest logistics market in North America
- Deep main channel (-53 ft) and neo-Panamax cranes allow the largest Trans-Pacific vessels to work fully laden
- Publicly reported terminal dwell and appointment data makes San Pedro Bay one of the most transparent US gateways
Operational challenges
- ILWU (longshoreman union) contract disputes have historically caused periodic operational disruptions
- Chassis availability is a persistent bottleneck independent of vessel volumes — a major operational risk
- California air quality regulations restrict truck operating hours and affect drayage capacity
- Trans-Pacific import surges — especially pre-holiday season — routinely stress terminal capacity
- Cargo split across LA and Long Beach terminals adds inter-terminal moves and complicates single-stop pickups
- Since the 2021 queuing rules, ships often loiter far offshore instead of anchoring, so a short anchor list can understate the real queue
Frequently asked questions about Port of Los Angeles
Is the Port of Los Angeles congested today?
The live figures at the top of this page answer that directly: vessels at anchor in San Pedro Bay, median and mean anchorage wait, berth occupancy and a congestion level (low, moderate, high or severe). They are recalculated every few minutes from AIS positions, so they reflect conditions right now rather than a monthly statistic.
Does PortInsight cover Long Beach port as well as Los Angeles?
Yes. PortInsight monitors the entire San Pedro Bay port complex as a single zone, which includes both the Port of Los Angeles (USLAX) and the Port of Long Beach. Together they handle approximately 40% of all US container imports and operate as a combined gateway for Trans-Pacific trade.
What causes LA and Long Beach port congestion?
San Pedro Bay congestion is typically driven by import surges from Asia (Trans-Pacific sailings arrive predominantly Monday–Wednesday), chassis availability, rail network capacity at the Alameda Corridor, and trucker appointment availability at terminals.
What is the current vessel waiting time at Los Angeles port?
Shorter than people expect, for a reason that matters more than the number. Los Angeles and Long Beach have run a vessel queuing system since 2022: a container ship is given its berth slot while still far offshore and approaches when the slot is ready, so it has no reason to anchor. Container anchorages here are brief pilot stops. Tankers, which are not in that system, anchor for far longer — the table on this page gives the measured median for each over the last 30 days. The offshore wait itself sits roughly 150 nautical miles out, beyond our monitored area and beyond the range of shore-based AIS, so no figure on this page should be read as the container queue.
How many ships are waiting off Los Angeles right now?
The anchorage counter on this page shows the live number of vessels holding inside the San Pedro Bay zone. Note that under the queuing system introduced in 2021 many inbound ships wait outside the traditional anchorage area, so the offshore queue can be larger than the anchored count alone.
What does a day of waiting at Los Angeles cost?
As a planning baseline a waiting container ship accrues roughly $520 per hour (about $12,480 per day) in demurrage-equivalent cost, and a tanker closer to $680 per hour. The Los Angeles live demurrage cost counter applies those rates to the vessels actually waiting now.
What does a delay at Los Angeles cost?
Every hour a vessel waits outside Port of Los Angeles accrues demurrage. The free Los Angeles live demurrage cost counter converts the current anchorage queue into an estimated hourly and daily cost using vessel-type day rates, and the demurrage calculator lets you price your own container or voyage delay.