It's not that simple, given how much warehousing and transloading capacity is built around the Southern California gateway — and congestion is affecting every port in America. Even so, shippers and carriers are indeed moving to sidestep Los Angeles/Long Beach.

In the ongoing battle for Asian imports between the West Coast and East Coast, the momentum is once again swinging back to the east. "November was the sixth straight month in a growing dichotomy in performance between the West Coast and East/Gulf Coast port ranges, with the latter performing markedly better," wrote consultant John McCown in the new edition of the McCown Container Volume Observer.

Containerized imports to the top West Coast ports fell 7.5% year on year in November, he reported. In contrast, imports to East/Gulf Coast ports rose 9.9%.

McCown also tracked year-over-year changes in imports to West Coast versus East/Gulf Coast ports on a three-month trailing average basis. These numbers confirm a significant shift from the Pacific, reversing the switch in favor of the West Coast seen in the earlier months of the pandemic.

'Anywhere but LA'

American Shipper asked consultant Jon Monroe about the potential to switch ports and avert Los Angeles/Long Beach congestion.

"It's happening already," said Monroe during a recent video interview. "I can't name specific companies, but I can tell you a company that's got huge facilities on the West Coast that normally calls LA/LB has moved to Houston and set up a transload center there.

"There are a lot of people saying, 'Anywhere but LA' — and yet you still see this long line of vessels coming in that are offloading in LA.

"You're seeing the East [and Gulf] Coast being more of an opportunity," said Monroe. "Let's face it, many of these big importers can deliver from anywhere because they have a national network, whether it's Los Angeles or Charleston or Norfolk or Jacksonville or Houston.