Ocean Alliance has canceled its only Asia-U.S. East Coast service into the Port of Boston until January 26, 2022, due to congestion and severe delays at the Port of Savannah.  During this time, shippers on the East Coast will need to rely more on the Port of New York and New Jersey, which will pose challenges to the ongoing limited supply of truck drivers and chassis at these ports.

The backlog of vessels in Savannah is causing Ocean Alliance’s AWE1/Vespucci service to skip calls to Boston’s Conley terminal.  The first vessel in the port rotation will go straight from Charleston to New York-New Jersey beginning this week.

Since AWE1/Vespucci will skip Boston, more containers are moving up by truck from the New Jersey ports.  According to a Journal of Commerce article, “dry van loads from Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Boston rose 18% from September to October.”  Meanwhile, “broker listings for freight coming out of Boston fell 26% month-to-month in October amid the slowdown of Conley activity.”

The cost of moving freight from New Jersey to Boston is rising, and the trip to Boston is also affecting the limited supply of drayage drivers that are willing to work in the New Jersey ports.

While rail freight to Boston from two New Jersey marine terminals via CSX Transportation is available, there is limited open space on that service.