International ports

Port Metro Vancouver’s 14-point action plan to reduce truck wait times, improve terminal fluidity and ensure compensatory earnings for the approximately 1,700 drayage truck drivers that serve Canada’s largest container port is celebrating its two-year milestone with dramatically reduced turn times.

Incheon Port Authority launched a single window communication service to reduce congestion and emissions in the vicinity of the port and to increase productivity and supply chain efficiency.

The government of India on Wednesday approved a proposal by the Ministry of Shipping to secure up to $150 million in credit from the Export-Import Bank of India for the modernization and operation of cargo facilities at the port of Chabahar in Iran.

The economic crisis in Russia has pulled down container traffic in the country’s Far East and suspended infrastructure projects in the region, according to a recent report from the Far East Marine Research Institute.

The construction of a second container terminal at Wilhelmshaven has been backed by a feasibility study of the growth potential of Germany’s only deep-sea port.

DP World-operated container terminals at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust are rolling out more steps to improve truck turn times, which have been a source of concern for shippers and drayage services providers using India’s busiest container gateway during the past year amid growing freight volumes.

China’s major ports registered a slight increase in year-over-year container throughput in January. The country’s top 20 ports handled over 15.6 million 20-foot-equivalent units between them in the first month of 2016, an increase of 0.5 percent over the same month the previous year.

Driven by firm shipments of auto parts and aircraft, the Port of Nagoya in 2015 retained its status as the biggest export hub by value among Japan’s airports and seaports for the fourth straight year.

Despite the downturn in global trade, DP World-operated International Container Transshipment Terminal, or Vallarpadam, at India’s Port of Cochin remains well on track to complete a record-setting fiscal 2015-16, which ends March 31, according to the newest port figures collected by JOC.com.

There has been little good news from the northern Chinese city of Tianjin since the deadly explosions of August 2015 that resulted in tragic loss of life and took a heavy economic toll, including a dramatic fall in cargo throughput at the city’s port.

It measured just six inches, but the port of Antwerp has hailed it as a “new milestone” that sharpens its ability to take on its rivals in the expanding world of mega-ships.

The Panama Canal Authority warned that the El Nino weather phenomenon could result in draft restrictions on the waterway as soon as April.

The member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are to implement processes to measure and improve productivity at their major ports.

A new deep-sea container transshipment terminal at Colachel on the southwestern coast of India should be able to capture a significant portion of domestic cargo currently relayed over other hub ports in the region, especially Sri Lanka’s Port of Colombo, a preliminary feasibility study for the port project shows.

Global port design and engineering firm AECOM, which has been hired by the government of India to work on various port development projects under its “Sagar Mala” scheme, concluded that authorities will need to spend close to Rs. 10,000 crore (approximately $1.5 billion) on the construction of basic infrastructure for a new, deep-water port at Vadhavan, near Dahanu in Maharashtra.

Container throughput at Mundra Port, India’s biggest, private cargo complex, continues to grow, but the newest figures show a trend of slowing growth amid weaker global demand.

India will issue tenders in March for a consulting study on the development of a new transshipment port at Colachel on the Malabar coast on the southernmost tip of the subcontinent.

The Bronka and Ust-Luga seaports are expected to become the new container hubs of northwest Russia due to Russian Federal Customs Service plans to cease servicing export-import cargo on site at Big Port St. Petersburg.

Chennai Port, India’s second-largest major, public, container handler in a trade announcement said it has effectively dealt with long truck turn times and congestion in the harbor through a slew of proactive measures.

Privately operated Adani Hazira Port announced state-owned rail operator Container Corporation of India has begun operating a regular train service connecting the terminal with Pithampur, a busy inland destination in the central region, increasing hinterland shippers’ access to the minor, alternative gateway.

Asciano, the parent corporation of Patrick, Australia’s biggest container terminal operator, announced Tuesday that its board has unanimously approved its acquisition by Qube Holdings, the logistics firm headed by Chris Corrigan, who was pushed out as CEO of Patrick during a hostile takeover in 2006.

Japan is planning to increase involvement in infrastructure projects in Africa as it looks to strengthen its foothold in what Tokyo considers to be one of the world’s last major growth markets.

Adani Hazira Container Terminal, a privately operated, alternative gateway on India’s west coast, last week celebrated the first ship call of the Galex service, an intra-Asia loop operated jointly by Emirates Shipping Line, Hanjin Shipping, Korea Marine Transport Co. and Regional Container Lines.

China announced additional safety requirements for companies dealing with dangerous goods as it continues to highlight its resolve to overhaul safety procedures in the wake of the deadly Tianjin blasts and to punish those responsible.

APM Terminals Mumbai, which loads the majority of the freight passing through Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, has moved a step further with its gate automation drive, allowing faster truck turnarounds at India’s biggest, public container gateway.

After volume rose 2.6 percent year-over-year in 2015, the Santos port authority expects volume through South America’s largest container port to inch up slightly this year, as the recession takes its toll, particularly on trade with its top trade partner, China.

Big Port of St. Petersburg, Russia’s busiest seaport in terms of container traffic, posted a 27.8 percent year-over-year decline in container throughput for 2015 but is planning to regain its lead in the market in the coming years.

Vietnam’s preferential access to European Union markets and those of the U.S. once free trade deals between the two blocs are ratified will accelerate growth in the country’s already booming apparel and footwear markets, believes global tag and label maker Avery Dennison.

Kamarajar Port Limited, which runs the port at Ennore in the state of Tamil Nadu on India’s eastern coast, is investing close to $1.2 billion in five projects that will add its first container terminal and nearly double capacity over the coming three years.

The Port of Felixstowe will offer a container weighing service to ensure UK shippers are able to comply with the new SOLAS container weight regulation that will be enforced from July 1, and to avoid potential export disruption.

The rough Asia-Europe trade market and tit-for-tat sanctions between Russia and the West had a devastating impact on the Port of Hamburg’s throughput in 2015 by causing it to lose its status as the second-busiest port in Europe.

China Merchants Group plans to build a new outer seaport on the basis of the existing Klaipeda seaport in Lithuania, one of the largest seaports in the Baltics, while investing in in Klaipedos Smelte, the largest loading company in the port, according to recent statements from Arturas Drungilas, director of marketing and general affairs for the Klaipeda seaport.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India’s biggest, public, container handler, has relaxed conditions set earlier for using its “direct port delivery” facility for clearance of import cargo from its own terminals.

A 10 percent increase in traffic at Itapoá port to 512,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units driven by a 25 percent surge in chicken exports to 41,200 containers in 2015 has left Itapoá in dire need of new equipment and more capacity.

The Panama Canal cast fresh doubt on the planned Nicaragua canal on Monday, saying there isn’t enough cargo to support two canals, that the price tag is far above what Nicaragua says it will cost and that necessary tolls to pay for it would need to be three times what the Panama Canal charges today.

Container throughput at India’s major public ports was up 2.21 percent year-over-year in the first 10 months of fiscal year 2015-16, but the growth would have been slightly higher if the largest container handler, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, hadn’t faced slowdowns due to prolonged industrial unrest at the DP World facility in the harbor last month.

South Korea’s Hanjin Shipping has introduced a new container service at Krishnapatnam Port, a fast-growing alternative, minor, cargo gateway on India’s southeastern coast.

APM Terminals-operated Gujarat Pipavav Port is making a strong pitch for more roll-on, roll-off traffic, as the minor cargo facility on India’s west coast struggles to grow its container volumes amid sluggish global demand.

Indonesia is expected to continue to disallow majority foreign ownership of its ports when it releases a revised version of its list of limits on foreign participation in the economy due to be issued in the coming week.

Rotterdam’s pioneering automated container terminals face tough challenges as they strive to hit ambitious productivity targets in their first full year of operations with the rest of the European waterfront looking on.