International ports

Several world regions seem to have planned much more container terminal capacity than needed for the coming decades.

The major China export gateway of Yantian will offer container weighing services to help shippers comply with the SOLAS container weight rule.

The Panama Maritime Authority has reached an agreement with a Chinese consortium on Panama's first post-Panamax capable container terminal.

Service upgrades and additions were not enough to propel Pipavav Port to growth in the last fiscal year.

Cuba’s Mariel container terminal has already planned its transformation into a major transshipment hub after the U.S. trade embargo ends, according to TC Mariel General Director Charles Baker.

India’s role in the development of the free trade port of Chabahar in southeastern Iran will be high on the agenda when Prime Minister Narendra Modi begins a two-day visit to the country next week.

Latin America and Caribbean terminal operators will face different national rules regarding the SOLAS container weight verification rule, adding another layer of difficulty to an already tricky process.

The Brazilian port sector’s worst nightmare has become a reality with the government’s announcement that the Special Ports Ministry, or SEP, would be subsumed by the Transport Ministry as part of a cost-saving initiative.

France’s ports, railways and airports face shutdown.

India is accelerating its drive for private investment in its ports and maritime sectors.

The urgently needed dredging of the entrance channel to the port of Santos in Brazil is slowly edging toward reality after a multitude of delays.

China’s Cosco Pacific is buying a stake in Rotterdam’s Euromax container terminal from Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings.

The Japanese government is planning to invest in a port in southeastern Iran centered on the city of Chabahar.

Authorities at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust seem to have resolved issues tied to the introduction of an expanded “direct port delivery” scheme.

Europe’s northern gateway ports will remain a better option than their Mediterranean rivals for Asia cargo.

Japan is providing Vietnam with new loans.

Negotiations between India and Iran are rapidly progressing on the long-awaited plan to upgrade and operate marine facilities at the Chabahar port, a free trade zone on the Gulf of Oman.

A new container terminal at Colombo will expand capacity at one of Asia's largest transshipment hubs.

Ecoporto Santos has had to lay off more staff as container throughput has fallen to just a trickle.

APM Terminals, Terminal Link, Terminal Investments Ltd , and PSA International have pre-qualified to bid on a proposed container terminal at Corozal, according to the Panama Canal Authority. Mitsui O.S.K Lines, Manzanillo International Terminal and Ports America were were not approved.

International Container Transshipment Terminal, or Vallarpadam, did not make much headway in getting major mainline calls in the first three years of its operations at India's Port of Cochin but is now on a path to rapid growth.

Unexpected and unseasonably rough seas caused the closure of Santos, South America’s biggest port for containers.

India shippers will have to pay more when their trucks get to Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, which is working feverishly to double container capacity at its flagship Mundra Port, recorded significant gains in its fiscal year 2015 to 2016 financial results.

DP World-operated Chennai Container Terminal said it has made significant progress in easing truck bottlenecks that have long plagued India’s second-largest public container gateway and busiest gateway on the east coast.

The diverging fortunes of two container terminals in Itajai, Brazil, open a window into how carrier consolidation and the merger of joint services can impact port terminals worldwide.

Political convulsions in Brazil are taking a toll on the port sector, forcing the resignation of Ports Minister Helder Barbalho mere months after he assumed the position.

Container throughput at South Korea’s Incheon Port expanded in the first quarter.

There appears to be no real relief in sight to the supply chain woes that have long plagued Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India’s busiest public container gateway, costing shippers and the trade in general in more ways than one.

Russia is developing a plan to certify container weighing scales so exporters can meet the International Maritime Organization’s verified gross mass rule with less than 70 days before it takes effect.

Intermodal logistics giant Container Corporation of India is moving heavily into privately operated Krishnapatnam Port, lured by new mainline service additions and strong volume gains at the minor, alternative cargo gateway on India’s east coast.

The first meeting of the newly formed Hong Kong Maritime & Port Board will take place early next month. Chaired by the secretary for Transport & Housing, the body is an amalgam of the old Maritime Industry Council and the Port Development Council. It is designed to deliver more effective governance and strategy over the development of the territory’s port and maritime sector.

The Patrick container terminal at the port of Melbourne in Australia will face a stoppage as part of a three-week-old industrial action campaign by the Maritime Union of Australia as the two parties negotiate contracts.

A simplified, expanded “direct port delivery” scheme at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, introduced with the goal of reducing cargo dwell times in India’s busiest container gateway, has run into trouble after private terminal authorities said they are unable to extend the so-called green channel facility to all approved clients without being compensated for the increased volume.

China’s top container ports booked March throughput growth of 4.2 percent compared with the same month in 2015. The country’s top eight ports handled a combined 12.45 million twenty-foot-equivalent units in March, bringing their throughput into positive territory for the first quarter of 2016, with first-quarter volumes up 0.9 percent on the same period last year to 35.4 million TEUs.

Nittsu Research Institute and Consulting Inc. expects Japan’s container trade to remain almost flat in fiscal 2016, edging up only 0.1 percent from a year earlier to 11.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units because of economic uncertainty both at home and abroad.

Cargo-handling and vessel operations in Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust have returned to normal levels, as terminal authorities cleared up much of the freight that built up on the back of labor disruptions that caused intermittent gate closings and forced truck drivers to wait in long lines outside access points earlier this week at India’s busiest container gateway.

Southeast Asia has a high level of potential for the development of ports and container terminals, particularly in the smaller sized segment serving vessels with capacities to 5,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units.

Rotterdam’s container traffic shrank by 3.9 percent in the first quarter, extending a decline in 2015 that has narrowed Europe’s largest box port’s lead over second-ranked Antwerp, which continues to grow its market share.

Container lines can reserve transits for vessels of up to 14,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units through the Panama Canal, providing carriers with the ability to gain greater economies of scale, which may or may not be passed onto shippers.