Container ships are anchoring outside both southeast US ports due in part to a project in Charleston that will shut one berth at the Wando Welch Terminal until the fall.

Ports not designed for transshipment are being inundated with boxes, one of the knock-on effects of Suez Canal diversions that is contributing to a global capacity crunch, experts say.

Carriers and forwarders said the average berthing delay is three to five days at Southeast Asia’s leading container gateway, but HMM and ONE said they are experiencing more than that.

After a successful one-off exercise involving 300 containers moving through Terminal 18 in Seattle, the Northwest Seaport Alliance will seek to convince ocean carriers to implement greater use of block stowage of rail cargo on vessels leaving Asia.

Cargo theft on the rails is becoming highly organized, with criminals targeting specific pallets inside containers being carried on a train rather than ransacking boxes at random.

Growth in the use of a low-value shipment rule has attracted critics, who say the de minimis program provides a loophole for e-commerce companies abroad to evade duties.