THE ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have acknowledged that there are mixed signals coming through on the implementation of storage fees for long-dwelling import and empty containers, leading to confusion for carriers and retailers.

However, the ports insist that they are working behind the scenes to develop a unified approach, report IHS Media.

The ports, which together handle about 50 per cent of US imports from Asia, also say the recent lack of conformity on the issue of fees can be counterproductive as they attempt to reduce historic operational bottlenecks in the nation's largest port complex.

Any confusion on the part of shippers and carriers would be understandable. Los Angeles and Long Beach in late October approved the creation of a fee on long-dwelling import containers in a move to encourage retailers to retrieve the boxes in a timely manner. But the ports have held off on formally implementing the fee, citing progress the mere threat of the penalty has had in thinning the volume of containers.

Still, that has not stopped terminals from acting on their own. SSA Marine, which operates three container terminals in Long Beach, independently began to charge a long-dwell fee on import boxes at its facilities on December 15. And the port's three other terminals will impose similar fees in the coming weeks, Noel Hacegaba, deputy executive director and COO at the Port of Long Beach, said.

A terminal operator who did not want to be identified said the implementation of fees is better left to the individual terminals. "If there is a fee, it should come from the terminal operator because we know the specifics of each particular container and the ports don't," the source said.

The variation extends to empty containers as well. The Port of LA on December 30 announced it plans to begin charging container lines a fee next month for any empty boxes that dwell at the port's terminals for nine days or longer. Long Beach, at least publicly, has yet to say whether it will follow suit, but terminal operators there are said to oppose a fee on empty containers.

Despite the mixed messages, port officials say they are trying to develop uniformity.

Terminal operators in Long Beach said the handling of empty containers is a much different process than moving laden containers, with each laden container assigned to a specific importer and trucker. Empty containers destined for return to Asia are stacked in large piles. The empties are peeled off the top of the pile and are rapidly loaded onto vessels without regard to the identifying number on the side of the container.

If terminal operators had to dig deeply into the stacks to retrieve long-dwelling empties, the process would become so complex and time-consuming that it would actually exacerbate congestion woes.