Prices Going Up?

For John, BLUF:  We think our winter weather here in New England can be bad, but so can the odd spot of bad weather in Southern California.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Anchored Containerships Off Los Angeles/Long Beach Flee Winter Storm

From gCaptain, by Bloomberg's Brendan Murray, 26 January 2021.

Here is the lede plus two:

Cargo ships enduring one of the worst U.S. port bottlenecks in more than a decade faced down another obstacle as they waited to offload near Los Angeles: a lashing from Mother Nature.

Winds gusting to 55 knots (63 mph) and 17-foot (5.2-meter) waves forced 17 loaded container vessels to depart their anchorages for safety out at sea, the Marine Exchange of Southern California said in a note late Monday.  Another 14 carriers remained anchored outside the adjacent ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, it said.

The storm prevented “many” scheduled port movements, and marine officials indicated that the congestion doesn’t look likely to clear soon:  28 additional container lines are scheduled to arrive in the next three days — 11 more than the usual pre-Covid traffic.

Will this bottleneck at the port cause the cost of imported goods to go up, or is the cost of an idling ship not that high?

Regards  —  Cliff