Shippers just experienced possibly the worst April on record in terms of shipping congestion and rising ocean freight costs. May will likely be even worse. We’ve written extensively about the various issues driving the increased congestion. However, the biggest factor in May will be the massive number of blank sailings. To get a sense of the sheer number of blank sailings in May, please see the list below that shows the up-to-date expected blank sailings from Asia to the United States.

Based on the chart above, the ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach are expecting to miss out on eleven vessels in May. The port of Oakland is expecting to miss out on nine vessels in that same time period

We are already seeing the result of these blank sailings as bookings for Transpacific space to the U.S. West Coast are completely booked up through May. Importers are left to fight for what limited space opens up on the sailings each week. Factories in Asia have indicated that their warehouses are overfilled with goods that need to ship out, but cannot find space on vessels. To echo our previous articles, the global supply chain is slowly grinding to a halt.