International ports

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust handles the majority of India’s container freight and, as such, that connectivity improvement is extremely significant for the emerging market economy — and for shippers.

Dwell times at Vancouver rail facilities are approaching last winter’s levels, when port congestion was the worst in years, but terminal operators say the factors driving the current delays are not a harbinger.

In mid-May, top officials from Nepal, led by Nepal Ambassador to Bangladesh Professor Chop Lal Bhusal, visited Banglabandha land port to see the transit route and how the nation’s goods would reach Chittagong and Mongla ports.

Protesters Wednesday morning blocked all access points to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, bringing container movement to a halt. The stoppage was tentatively called off later in the day, after authorities agreed to hold talks with demonstrators on Oct. 10 regarding a new package deal.

Executives from Rotterdam and Antwerp, barge operator neska Container Line, and Dusseldorf-based Asia-Europe shipper Metro Sourcing International gathered at JOC’s Container Trade Europe conference in Hamburg to thrash out a problem that has dogged the giant hub ports for years.

As trade concerns persist, the Maritime Association of Nationwide Shipping Agencies — representing local ship agents — called on authorities to address "still-unresolved" inland logistics challenges faced by ocean carriers and others at Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals.

Vancouver, Canada’s largest container port, until now has been limited in its capacity to grow by a lack of surge capacity at its rail operations, which serve eastern Canada and the US Midwest.

The Chittagong Port Authority implemented the measure to reduce vessel wait times and the long line in the outer anchorage.

Brazil’s weaker currency, an expanding global economy, and enduring international customers should bode well for the port of Santos. But shippers say inefficiency and a lack of renovation are delaying that. Now, a number of shippers’ groups want a different form of port management.

A six-vessel India-Middle East-East Mediterranean consortium — comprising CMA CGM and Cosco Container Lines — has shifted operations from APM Terminals’ Gateway Terminals India to PSA's Bharat Mumbai Container Terminal.

So far, India's cabotage reform has boosted transshipment business for private ports more than anticipated.

There were several, telling data points that placed the business loss in a historical context.

Montreal is the latest North American port to extend terminal gate hours and place a charge on containers to pay for it, and given the volume trend at the port, it’s not a moment too soon.

The port of Halifax’s volume has grown amid the global economic recovery, and now it has a flexible expansion plan to position it for even greater volume and bigger ships.

Under the liberalized cabotage program, foreign ocean carriers are free to transport laden export-import containers for transshipment and empty containers for repositioning between Indian ports, without any specific permission or license.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust handles the majority of India’s container trade and, hence, the government is keen on achieving speedier freight movement to/from through terminals there.

Further, the latest data suggest that the intensifying fight between Krishnapatnam and Kattupalli for market share will further cut into volume moving through Chennai port's terminals.

“With the assistance of federal mediators, GCT Canada and ILWU Local 502 reached a tentative five-year collective bargaining agreement,” the terminal operator stated in a release on Thursday.

The 20-mile, three-lane dual carriageway bridge is the only road link to the Yangshan terminals, part of the huge Shanghai port that handled 20.5 million TEU in the first half of 2018.

Currently, the ship wait time in the country’s prime seaport is about five days, and officials believe that can be reduced substantially.

The hub port of Felixstowe continues to face carrier fallout from delays experienced since Hutchison Port upgraded its terminal operating system in June.

Don Krusel, who led Prince Rupert for 25 years, will be the project's managing director, the Quebec Port Authority said, citing his experience helping to transform Prince Rupert from a fishing village and bulk shipping port to a major container force for Canadian shippers.

Other ports have found that there is demand for both the direct port delivery and direct port entry programs, which have helped quicken the pace of freight in India.

A new study by Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Management College says the deployment of larger vessels and larger alliances, combined with the historical structure of the port, is leading to a critical rise in the number of inter-terminal transfers, resulting in higher charges to shipping lines, placing the port at a disadvantage.

For now, grade India’s liberalized cabotage program a modest success.

China’s ports were the star performers in the 2018 Top 50 Global Container Port rankings, with seven ports among the Top 10, in terms of total TEU handled in 2017.

Bharat Mumbai Container Terminals, which has handled about 150,000 TEU as of August 2018, this month added nine, new rubber-tire gantry cranes, bringing the total cranes to 27, PSA India officials said.

Officials say alliance volume shifting from Bremerhaven could go a long way toward replacing losses in two areas — one business model-related, the other physical.

The two sides have different interpretations regarding how the direct port delivery system is faring and its cargo flow process.

Perhaps nowhere in the world, save India, is a critical mass of demand and resources coming together to produce a more-promising trade future than in Mexico. But to maintain that take-off status, Mexico will have to solve major infrastructure shortcomings, as well as address longstanding trade security issues.

Asia-to-Southern Europe shippers now have quicker cargo transport options than the traditional Shanghai-to-St. Petersburg route, in Russia’s Novorossiysk port and Ukraine’s Chornomorsk and Odessa ports. In addition, as the latter ports expand and deploy economies of scale, their rates may drop below the traditional route as well.

The latest tech upgrade at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust represents more good news for truck drivers.

Terminal de Conteineres de Paranaguá (TCP), also known as Paranaguá, is in an annual race with another port for the title of “global chicken export port king,” and its officials are not subtle regarding where they want to finish each year.

The Container Freight Station Association of India, which represents 27 container freight station operators, has urged authorities to deal with terminals’ disinclination toward the wider direct port delivery logistics operation at an upcoming stakeholder review meeting.

The Hamburg Vessel Coordination Center, which coordinates vessel traffic visiting terminals at the port of Hamburg, is launching collaborative projects to help determine if it is meaningful to continue bilateral information exchanges or to replace it with a central data hub to support improved terminal asset utilization and liner route and network planning.

Officials concluded that instead of a sudden, sweeping policy change, the port will work toward reducing free times for all "export containers" handled via inland container depots (ICDs) to six days from seven days and, depending on the progress, a further reduction will be considered.

Stakeholder APM Terminals Mumbai informed parties of likely delays. “This stoppage of traffic will have an adverse impact on terminal gate movement and traffic around [the] port area,” APM Terminals stated in a trade advisory.

Transshipment traffic is the cargo that is transported between an Indian port and an international “hub” port, when direct mainline connections are not available.

Direct port delivery — in which importers can clear their cargo direct from the wharf within 48 hours of landing at the port — is an integral part of the Indian government’s efforts to decrease cargo dwell times and increase productivity.

To date, five feeder vessels have left the port, failing to receive 1,168 TEU of export containers, as those containers did not reach the port yard in time.