CONGESTION is easing in Asia's big ports as the peak shipping season ends, which is good news for clogged western gateway ports still battling win a flood of imports, reports Bloomberg.

Total traffic in Shanghai-Ningbo declined by 0.2 per cent from the previous week and Hong Kong-Shenzhen's ship count dropped 10.4 per cent, according to data analysis by Bloomberg News.

Singapore, Asia's third-largest trade hub, saw a week-to-week drop of 14.7 per cent as a backlog visible since early November looked to be largely cleared.

But Pacific ports still have ships lined up awaiting berths, the most congested ports being Los Angeles and Long Beach, with congestion levels rising 6.7 per cent from week to week.

Some 70 containerships were waiting after politicians toured the ports. But the White House said the number of containers sitting at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports for more than nine days fell to 87,000 in the week ending November. 15, compared with 127,000 on November 1.

The congestion rate crept up 25 per cent greater than the median in Tianjin, while a Covid outbreak in the smaller Port of Dalian drove down containership counts to an April-to-November low of five ships.

Manila continues to see high congestion rates, with at least 15 containerships waiting to offload, compared with eight in port. In the US, Savannah, Georgia, continues to log the worst congestion rate among larger container ports at 87.5 per cent.