Port Congestion Tracker
Pricing
Pay per usage
Port Congestion Tracker
Port Congestion Tracker. Track changes and receive alerts with configurable schedules. Reliable monitoring with automatic retries.
What does this actor do?
The Port Congestion Tracker is an Apify actor that monitors congestion levels, vessel wait times, and backlog conditions at major ports around the world. It collects data from public news sources about port conditions, vessel queues, and wait time estimates, then structures this information into an easy-to-analyze dataset. Whether you are tracking the Port of Los Angeles, Shanghai, Rotterdam, or any other major shipping hub, this actor delivers up-to-date congestion intelligence.
Why use this actor?
Port congestion directly impacts shipping costs, delivery timelines, and inventory management. When ports become congested, vessels can wait days or even weeks to berth, causing cascading delays throughout global supply chains. By monitoring congestion levels across your key ports, you can proactively adjust shipping schedules, reroute cargo, or prepare customers for potential delays. This actor automates what would otherwise require hours of manual research across multiple maritime news sources and port authority websites.
How does it work?
The actor uses CheerioCrawler to scrape Google News RSS feeds for each port you specify, searching for articles about port congestion, vessel wait times, and shipping backlogs. Each article is analyzed using natural language pattern matching to determine the congestion level (Severe, High, Moderate, or Low), extract vessel count information, and identify average wait times in days. The actor also maps each port to its country based on a built-in database of major global ports. All structured results are pushed to the Apify dataset.
Input parameters
- ports (array of strings): Port names to monitor. Default:
["Los Angeles", "Long Beach", "Shanghai"]. - maxResults (integer): Maximum number of congestion entries to return. Default:
20.
Output fields
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| portName | Name of the port being monitored |
| country | Country where the port is located |
| congestionLevel | Congestion severity: Severe, High, Moderate, or Low |
| vesselCount | Number of vessels mentioned (if available) |
| avgWaitDays | Average vessel wait time in days (if available) |
| timestamp | Date and time of the report |
Cost and performance
This actor uses a default memory allocation of 1024 MB and typically completes in under a minute for the default 3-port configuration. At the High PPE tier, each result costs approximately $0.0015. Monitoring more ports increases runtime proportionally but remains cost-effective even for tracking dozens of ports on a regular schedule.
Tips and best practices
- Add all ports in your supply chain to get a comprehensive view. Major ports include Singapore, Busan, Hamburg, Antwerp, Felixstowe, Dubai, Savannah, and many more.
- Schedule the actor to run daily to build a historical dataset for trend analysis and seasonal pattern detection.
- Combine the congestion data with the Container Shipping Rates Tracker to correlate congestion levels with rate fluctuations.
- Use the Supply Chain Disruption Monitor alongside this actor for a complete picture of supply chain health.
- Export results to a spreadsheet or dashboard to create visual congestion maps and alerts.
- Set up webhook notifications for runs that detect Severe congestion levels at your critical ports.
