Shipping congestion outside the biggest U.S. gateway for imports from Asia showed signs of easing over the past week as dockworkers made progress reducing by almost half a backlog that peaked at 40 vessels six weeks ago, Bloomgberg reports.

Twenty-two container ships were waiting to offload at the adjacent ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles as of Sunday, compared with 29 a week earlier, according to officials who monitor marine traffic in Southern California’s San Pedro Bay.

Thirteen more are scheduled to arrive over the next three days, with nine of those set to drop anchor.

The average wait for berth space was 7.6 days, little changed from 7.5 days a week ago, according to the L.A. port.

Bottlenecks at key West Coast ports have lingered since November. The number of anchored container ships waiting to offload at L.A.-Long Beach increased dramatically in December and January, according to data from Marine Exchange of Southern California & Vessel Traffic Service.

In late January, Ron Gill, the Operations Manager at Bengard Marketing told FreshFruitPortal.com: "What has been a lingering problem for months has all come together to form a perfect storm."

Sensitive fruits such as peaches, apricots and cherries were “suffering tremendously” from the unpredictable arrival schedule, he said at the time.