International ports

The fast-growing port of Dar es Salaam is working to double its annual capacity to 30 million metric tons per year and reduce dwell times from nine days to five by 2020, in an effort to become the top gateway to landlocked East African countries.

Strikes and slowdowns by Brazil’s customs officers are creating serious delays for chicken exporters in Brazil, according to the Brazilian Association for Animal Protein (ABPA).

The Russian government plans to spend between 20 and 25 billion rubles ($400 to $500 million) to expand and deepen the harbor of the Novorossiysk seaport to handle larger vessels, in order to make it more competitive with Ukrainian ports also on the Black Sea.

The DP World Caucedo transshipment hub in the Dominican Republic is moving forward with upgrades to accommodate the larger vessels that will be able to traverse the expanded Panama Canal next year and provide shippers with more warehouse capacity.

The Indian federal government is retreating from a controversial “corporatization” plan to transform ‘major’, or public, port trusts into independent companies following stiff opposition from labor unions and some political groups, dealing a big blow to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reform efforts to stimulate trade and economic growth.

A university professor thinks he may have found a solution for saving a project to dredge the channel into the port of Santos to 17 meters, or 56 feet, and also the town’s prestigious beaches from erosion as a result of that dredging.

The long-stalled Phase 2-4 of the Busan New Port is getting back in motion with the submission of applications to begin reclamation works, South Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries (MOF) announced Thursday.

Shippers using Port Botany and reeling from the impacts of labor strife in August took another blow as the facility was shut down Wednesday due to wild weather.

As a concession to the owners of the established port terminals and to encourage them to invest more in their container terminals, Brazil’s Special Ports Ministry has been negotiating to extend the concession periods before the contracts require.

India’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, which has been hit hard by a series of labor and other disruptions in the past few months, is turning things around with more intermodal services and the introduction of other proactive steps.

The Federation of Ship Agents’ Association of India, representing ocean carrier agents, claims APM Terminals-operated Gateway Terminals India may be violating its concession contract with the port authority, causing off-and-on labor disruptions at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India’s biggest container gateway.

In a followup to its earlier directives, India’s biggest container handler, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, has set Dec. 31 as the date by which shipping lines and related stakeholders should set up a paperless system for issuing import delivery orders to cargo interests.

Mokpo port has chosen South Korean logistics companies CJ Korea Express and Dongbang Co., along with port operator Mokpo New Port, to operate a vehicle terminal completed in July, according to the Mokpo Regional Oceans and Fisheries Administration Office.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. has acquired a 45 percent stake in the Trieste Marine Terminal as the 2M Alliance positions itself to capitalize on a European Union infrastructure initiative known as the TEN-T.

China, Japan, and South Korea are expanding an initiative aimed at sharing information, particularly warnings of danger, following the deadly explosions that rocked Tianjin port last month.

Volume-based toll reductions for container lines that regularly deploy large vessels through the expanded Panama Canal will make the canal route from Northeast Asia to the U.S. East Coast highly competitive with West Coast and Suez Canal routings, a Panama Canal Authority executive said.

Shippers moving good through the rapidly-growing port of Mombasa may soon have to pay steep new fees if the governor of the port’s county has his way, a move that could shift cargo to rival Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The Brazilian port of Sepetiba Tecon expects to double its container throughput in the second half of 2015 and should top 300,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units by year’s end.

Emirates Shipping Line has added a direct port call at Laem Chabang, Thailand to its Asia-Tanzania Express, or ATX, service, as the Middle East carrier seeks to capitalize on growing trade volumes to East Africa.

Finland ports, already suffering from container traffic declines, are set to get hit with another blow when they shut down Sept. 18 as part of a protest by the country's three big trade union federations against the government's labor reform program.

Port productivity and the ability to handle mega-ships are key drivers for shipping lines in selecting routes and ports of call and German ports must adapt to this new reality if they are to remain competitive.

DP World-operated Vallarpadam International Container Terminal at India’s Port of Cochin received long-awaited regulatory approval to reduce the number of free days allotted to laden import containers in an effort to ease congestion and improve terminal productivity.

Container throughput at China’s port of Tianjin, the world’s 10th busiest, plunged 28 percent year-over-year in August as recovery and clean-up efforts from last month’s deadly explosion continue.

Stakeholders striving to keep Brazil’s government from integrating the Special Ports Ministry, or SEP, with the Ministry of Transport have gained a powerful ally in Murillo Barbosa, head of the Association of Private Terminals.

North European ports must invest in more automated ship-to-shore cranes to achieve the 6,000 daily lifts that container lines want for their biggest ships, says Netherlands-based consulting firm Dynamar.

As container volume rises, Indonesia’s Tanjung Perak is working to improve productivity by streamlining its management, deploying new cranes and automating its operating system.

The Indian government has announced it is considering the establishment of a number of small ports, private ports for coastal shipping, taking another step toward improving supply chain services that have taken a hit in recent years amid port infrastructure bottlenecks and growing cargo volumes.

Container volume through port Gdansk plunged 16.7 percent year-over-year in the first half, highlighting the broader decline in trade between Poland and Russia as the latter’s economy struggles.

A long-running legal dispute between the Santos port authority and Grupo Libra over unpaid fees is coming to an end, paving the way for the terminal operator to invest $195.3 million in its two facilities at the busiest Latin American container gateway.

Container throughput at major public ports in India remained relatively flat in August year-over-year, dragged down by the week-long shuttering of APM Terminals-operated Gateway Terminals India in Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, the country’s biggest container handler.

Ports in the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are feeling the effects of Russia’s economic slowdown as they serve largely as transshipment locations into Russia.

After six years out of the game, Brazil’s Container Terminal Santa Clara, or CONTESC, will return to handling containers starting October, according to its joint owners Wilson, Sons and Braskem, and a new container barge service will start up to serve it.

Container traffic through Russia’s Baltic seaports plummeted 32 percent in the first half, showing that even Russian ports that serve as gateways to the country’s most important cities, like Moscow and St. Petersburg, will not be able to escape the wrath of the Russian recession.

NYK Line has joined rival container carriers in lifting a port congestion surcharge imposed earlier for all cargo discharged at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India’s biggest container gateway, citing an improvement in port operations.

NYK Line is looking to profit off India’s booming auto industry with the addition of a new roll-on, roll-off terminal in Pipavav in the state of Gujarat on the country’s northwest coast.

A 24-hour strike by unionized dockworkers has disrupted normal operations at some of the key Indian major public ports, including largest container handler Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, on Wednesday, according to local shipping sources.

APM Terminals-operated Gateway Terminals India is showing no signs of getting ahead of the disruptions, labor or otherwise, that have halted operations at the largest container facility in Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust at different times during the past year.

OOCL and Emirates Shipping Line on Tuesday lifted their emergency surcharges imposed earlier for import cargo handled at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India’s biggest container gateway, citing an improvement in port operations.

Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port, the second largest Russian container gateway, will stick to its $1 billion effort to boost its container capacity and deepen its harbor to handle larger vessels even as traffic sharply declines.