Container Ships Headed for U.S. Poised to Worsen Port Bottleneck

  • Bloomberg Port Congestion Tracker shows L.A. wait lengthening
  • Eighty ships are queued outside Los Angeles and Long Beach

The Port of Los Angeles with incoming cargo ships waiting offshore, on Oct. 13.

Photographer: Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
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The backlog of ships outside the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach -- America’s largest gateway for ocean freight -- is poised to worsen.

There’s now a record of 80 container vessels waiting off Southern California, with more on the way from Asia. The bottleneck that started almost exactly a year ago shows little sign of letting up, according to a Bloomberg analysis shipping data.