(Florham Park, NJ)…As of October 6, BNSF has lifted its embargo for cargo destined for its ramps at St. Louis. BNSF first suspended allocations for movement along the eastbound Pacific Southwest lane into St. Louis on August 29th due to inland congestion caused by excessive volume and chassis shortages. As a result, cargo destined for St. Louis has experienced abnormal dwell times at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports and a backlog of units are awaiting movement inland.
Since the situation first arose, Hamburg Süd has been coordinating with BNSF to mitigate the impacts to customers, including:
- Ensuring available Hamburg Süd boxes were being pulled in a timely manner from the St. Louis ramp
- Diverting cargo to other rail ramps or local container yards when feasible
Although Hamburg Süd now has available allocations, it will take several weeks to deliver all of the dwelling containers at Los Angeles and Long Beach over to St. Louis. Further, the dray situation in St. Louis is still tenuous and may affect the fluidity of this lane moving forward.
Fortunately, the chassis market has stabilized, which will facilitate the movement of cargo around St. Louis. Hamburg Süd continues to take preemptive action to mitigate inland congestion where possible and has received assurances from BNSF that our units are prioritized for movement eastbound.
We appreciate your patience and thank you for your continued support of efforts to keep your supply chain moving.
Please contact your Hamburg Süd representative with any questions that you may have.