International ports

Mexico is no longer the low-wage sourcing location for low-value consumer products for the U.S. market that it was two decades ago when the North American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. and Canada was implemented.

Chibatao and Super Terminais, the two container terminals serving Manaus, are both getting their operational acts together before more competition heats up in the region, investing a combined $115.5 million in new equipment and terminal improvements this year.

Four new super post-Panamax gantry cranes capable of handling the largest vessels in the world are now en route to Manzanillo International Terminals in Panama.

Shippers tapping containerized rail services between the Port of Antwerp and Duisburg are poised to see greater reliability and experience less congestion at the North European seaport after the former joined forces with duisport, Europe’s largest inland port.

One of the most isolated and intriguing cities in the world, Manaus, Brazil, also presents some of the most difficult container shipping challenges to be found anywhere.

The start of the second phase of construction of the Yangtze River channel extension project at Nanjing will allow China’s largest inland port to handle ocean-going vessels.

State-owned rail operator Container Corporation of India has slashed its charges for the movement of empty containers between Chennai Port and Bangalore, providing some respite for shippers struggling with port delays and ocean carrier surcharges.

The Chinese economy has said goodbye to high-speed growth as well as stable foreign trade volumes, which is putting pressure on the operations of Chinese ports, Tong Mengda, chief economist of Ningbo Port Group, told delegates at the Intermodal Asia 2015 conference in Shanghai in March.

As part of Busan’s larger effort to shore up its transshipment business amid fierce competition, the Korean government has announced plans to demolish an island to allow it to better handle mega-ships.

European ports’ hinterland connections will get a boost via the European Union’s largest-ever infrastructure investment totaling 13.1 billion euro ($14.5 billion).

Minor ports in India are aggressively eating into the market share of their government-owned big rivals, as shippers and ocean carriers frustrated with growing delays at some of the leading public port complexes, including Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, look for alternative port options, according to an analysis of port statistics obtained by JOC.com.

Spurred by growing container volumes, terminal operator Hutchison Port Holdings’ Barcelona subsidiary has expanded the port’s hinterland connectivity.

The Port of Rio de Janeiro's hopes for container growth are constrained by factors both technical and political.

Soaring land prices and road congestion in southeast England could spur more shippers, particularly trading with mainland Europe, to move containers through the country’s northeast ports.

Kattupalli International Container Terminal, an emerging alternative gateway on India’s southeastern coast, last week celebrated the first ship call of the SCI Middle East India Liner Express, or SMILE, an intra-regional service by state-owned carrier Shipping Corporation of India.

In a familiar turn, Brazil’s effort to attract 10 billion reais ($3.23 billion) of investment for its port sector in recent weeks took two steps forward and one step back.

In September, the first phase of a new deep-sea port with a capacity of 1.45 million 20-foot-equivalent units will open amid sanctions and a collapse in the price of oil that have pulled down St. Petersburg’s container volume.

Container trailer companies in Nhava Sheva late Tuesday lifted their boycott of APM Terminals-operated Gateway Terminals India, giving beleaguered shippers some relief from landside capacity constraints that have tightened during the past year amid rising volumes via Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

Singapore has opened two new phases of its $2.6 billion Pasir Panjiang Terminal, another step along a massive development road that will help the port cope with mega-ships and alliance complexities continuing to frustrate transshipment hubs in the region.

A strike by employees of MyFerryLink has closed Port of Calais, snarling trucks seeking to use ferry services to cross the English Channel, according to the BBC.

Container trailer groups in the Nhava Sheva port complex issued a trade notice suspending drayage operations to and from APM Terminals-run Gateway Terminals India, effective Tuesday, sparking another round of congestion woes for shippers and carriers using India’s largest box gateway, also known as Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

If Hong Kong was added to a table of China’s top 20 container ports, it would slot in at number four both in terms of cumulative throughput this year and in May volumes, according to the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.

Container terminals in Hong Kong have joined Maersk Line in calling for the territory’s government to address competition law concerns that threaten to make the liner business illegal from next year.

DP World will use automated cargo-handling at a container port it plans to open this year at Yarimca, Turkey, on the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul. The terminal, DP World’s first in Turkey, will have capacity of 1.3 million 20-foot-equivalent units a year.

Chilean ports have been hit by a series of brief strikes by port workers protesting terms of a labor reform approved last week by the lower chamber of the nation’s congress.

Shippers face a two-pronged threat of strikes at Brazil’s Port of Santos, the largest in South America.

The feasibility of a container “subway” in Singapore to carry containers from a new mega-port through underground tunnels is being studied.

Plans to invest 198.4 billion reais ($63.83 billion) in infrastructure concession projects have been announced in Brazil this past week by President Dilma Rousseff. Roughly 37.4 billion reais is expected to be invested in the port sector.

Cosco Pacific reported growing container volumes across all its geographical sectors with 28 million TEUs handled by China’s second largest port operator in the first five months of the year.

The Port of Rotterdam continues to position itself as a pre-eminent European port of call for mega-ships with the arrival of three new cranes at the ECT Delta Terminal at Maasvlakte.

It seems nothing can stop the slide in Hong Kong container traffic as the port reported its 11th consecutive month of declining throughput growth in May with volumes falling 12.7 percent year-over-year.

India’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Peel Ports, owner of the port of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, have signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate long-term, strategic cooperation.

In its most aggressive move in the African market in years, APM Terminals has begun construction on a new container terminal at Ghana’s largest container gateway and plans to invest heavily on inland connections to allow growing volume to move more efficiently to and from the hinterland.

Shippers and carriers using the Brazilian port of Santos are bracing themselves for delays and dislocation next week as the Santos Union of Stevedores prepares to stage a 12-hour strike on a day yet to be decided.

The Port of Prince Rupert had another big month in May with total container volume increasing 45.6 percent over May 2014.

The Hong Kong government this week said it would move forward with plans to expand container capacity at its Kwai Tsing Container Terminals. But move is unlikely to mollify critics who say the investment is too little too late to maintain the port’s market share of Pearl River Delta traffic.

The chief executive of the port of Piraeus is resigning as the Greek government proceeds with the controversial privatization of the leading Mediterranean container hub.

APM Terminals estimates it will take 7 to 10 days for operations to return to normal after striking stevedores returned to work Friday at the company’s general cargo terminal in Callao, Peru.

Indian authorities on Wednesday cleared the way for developing a big, new, container transshipment port at Vizhinjam, a deep-sea, green field site in the country’s southern state of Kerala.

Far East ports, such Vladivostok and Khabarovsk, will drive Russian container volume growth, as trade between Russia and China grows through greater economic cooperation, according to new government forecast out of Moscow.