International ports

The Chennai Port Authority, India’s second-largest state-owned container gateway, is poised to reach a record throughput volume in fiscal year 2014-15, which ends March 31, the latest port statistics collected by JOC.com reveal.

Officials at the Panama Canal on Monday were still working their way through a significant vessel backlog after an “unusual” increase in the number of ships awaiting transit began to back up outside the waterway weeks ago.

Port of Santos users and operators were hit by a bombshell Friday when an injunction was imposed, halting the port’s much-needed dredging program.

China’s Cosco Pacific will bid for a majority stake in Greece's port of Piraeus after the country's new socialist government apparently reversed course on its opposition to port privatization.

Yemen has shut down its major seaports after a series of airstrikes from neighboring Saudi Arabia against rebels fighting Yemen’s Western-backed government, according to various reports.

New depth restrictions on container ships calling at the port of Santos, supported by pilots citing dangers to navigation from shallow channels, is sparking criticism from carriers and terminals affected by the restrictions.

A leading European barge operator will levy a congestion surcharge on containers shipped to and from Rotterdam next week.

The Indian federal government has approved a special-purpose company with equity participation of all major ports to implement rail connectivity projects aimed at improving supply chain services.

A year before its scheduled completion of a $5 billion-plus expansion, the Panama Canal Authority is discussing the idea of building even larger locks to allow head-to-head competition with the Suez Canal.

The Nigerian government has closed its ports, including Lagos, and land borders, and won’t open them until midnight Saturday to allow for “the peaceful conduct of the (presidential) elections.”

Officials at the Panama Canal are working their way through a significant vessel backlog after an “unusual” increase in the number of ships awaiting transit began to back up on either side of the waterway weeks ago.

Ningbo Port Group sees potential in seaway-railway intermodal transport as the central Chinese port looks for more business.

China is expected to step up pressure on Greece to revive the stalled privatization of the port of Piraeus during a visit to Beijing this week by ranking members of the new Athens government.

The Indian Ministry of Shipping has set April 15 as the date by which shipping lines should start issuing import delivery orders electronically to the cargo interests, another initiative toward paperless operation at major ports aimed at reducing wait times and costs.

DCT Gdansk has ordered 15 rubber-tire gantry cranes from Konecranes for scheduled deployment at the Polish terminal in the second half of 2016.

Crane operators employed by private rubber-tire gantry contractors at Gateway Terminals India ended a go-slow action and resumed normal activity over the weekend, terminal operator APM Terminals Mumbai said in a trade advisory.

Brazil’s beleaguered President Dilma Rousseff took time off from her political travails last week to inaugurate the first phase of a $557 million expansion at the port of Rio de Janeiro.

German barge operator Contargo doubled down on its warning that it will impose surcharges because of congestion at the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, saying it would decide whether to levy higher fees next week at the latest.

PSA International is investing 40 million euros [$42.5 million] to boost the annual capacity of its container terminal in Sines, Portugal, to 2.5 million TEUs.

Malaysia plans to invest millions of dollars into the transportation infrastructure supporting Port Klang in an effort to boost exports out of the country’s main maritime gateway.

The announcement last week by carrier alliances that beginning in late March they will deploy three new all-water services from Asia to the East Coast through the Panama Canal was a dagger to the hearts of West Coast ports besieged by congestion and labor problems.

Publicly owned major ports in India reported healthy levels of container throughput growth during April 2014 to February 2015, the first 11 months of fiscal year 2014-15, compared to the volumes in the previous year, according to the latest provisional figures compiled by JOC.com.

Environmentalists and human rights activists warn that Nicaragua’s granting of a 100-year concession to a Hong Kong construction firm with unclear financial backing sets in motion a nightmarish scenario fraught with violence, depletion of the region’s largest source of freshwater and destruction of biodiversity.

After months of petitioning the Brazilian government, Santos Brasil, South America’s biggest container terminal operator, has received a 25-year concession contract extension for its Tecon Santos facility, Edinho Araujo, the head of Brazil’s Special Ports Ministry (SEP), recently said.

A dispute on rental fees charged to container terminal operators by the port of Melbourne is leading some in Australia to suggest regulating ports under competition law.

Rotterdam and Antwerp risk a return to the congestion that blighted the leading European container ports in 2014 after a major barge operator warned it might levy a surcharge in response to “serious “bottlenecks.

An agreement between Indian dockworker union leaders and labor board officials was reached late Friday, averting a threatened indefinite nationwide strike that would have seriously disrupted operations at the country’s major ports.

The derailment of a CN train carrying crude oil in Ontario on March 7, which closed a main line from Toronto to British Columbia, has led to delays to container movements at Port Metro Vancouver.

Seven years ago the idea that a relatively obscure bulk port in a sparsely populated region of Western Canada would become one of the fastest growing container gateways in North America would have drawn smirks, and did, even though the vision of a gateway for Asia trade at that location went back to the early years of the 20th century.

Mumbai-based diversified logistics firm J.M. Baxi Group consolidated its cargo terminal business with a 30-year concession to operate a new multipurpose freight facility at the Port of Paradip, a major state-owned general cargo gateway on India’s east coast.

A consortium led by Montreal-based Fiera Axium Infrastructure has acquired Montreal Gateway Terminals from a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley, the companies announced Friday.

The Port of Rio Grande, in southern Brazil, shared a double dose of good news on Friday: truck flow operations had returned to normal and it’s moving forward with its dredging plans.

The four-alarm chemical fire at Port Metro Vancouver that shut down operations at the port for nearly 24 hours has been extinguished and operations on the south shore of Burrard Inlet have resumed.

Brazilian truck drivers rolled back many road blockades this week after President Dilma Rousseff signed a "trucker's bill" aimed at resolving some long-standing truck driver grievances. However, trucker protests continue at a diminished level in parts of the country, according to news reports, cutting into truck traffic at a key Brazilian port for soybean exports.

Despite ongoing congestion at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, don’t expect Mexican ports to become major gateways for U.S.-bound cargo anytime soon, Transplace CEO Thomas Sanderson said Tuesday.

Gate operations resumed Thursday morning at the South Shore of Burrard Inlet at Port Metro Vancouver, with the exception of the Centerm container terminal after a four-alarm chemical fire closed the facilities Wednesday.

Rio de Janeiro will be the first container port to benefit from Brazil’s $1.28 billion dredging program.

The port of Rotterdam Authority’s revenue rose in 2014 on increased activity in Europe’s largest container hub, but profits were reduced by higher interest charges linked to record investments in new facilities.

A Port Metro Vancouver terminal closed Wednesday afternoon after a four-alarm chemical fire started in one container and spread to others.

The Panama Canal Pilots Union, which is in negotiations for a new five-year contract, said it was encouraged by statements made by Panama Canal Authority CEO Jorge Quijano at the 15th annual TPM Conference here Tuesday.