International ports

The Indian government has approved plans to develop five new cargo terminals, including four major container facilities, at various state-owned ports through public-private partnerships, as part of its $110 billion port capacity-building program.

Duisburg, the world’s largest inland port, said its annual container capacity will reach 5 million TEUs by the end of the year.

Work to expand the Panama Canal was suspended today following a breakdown in talks between the canal authority and the construction consortium to resolve a bitter dispute over more than $1 billion in cost overruns.

SEA ISLAND, Ga. — A canal through Nicaragua connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans will cost double proponents’ estimate and will likely never be built, the No. 2 official at the Panama Canal said today.

Northeast Australia is bracing itself as a tropical low develops in the Coral Sea and is forecast to make landfall as a cyclone later today or early tomorrow local time.

CMA CGM Terminals is acquiring a 25 percent stake in Nigeria’s Lekki container terminal from Philippines-based International Container Terminal Services Inc.

India’s Port of Jawaharlal Nehru, which has been plagued by labor troubles in recent months, is bracing for yet another disruption to shipping as the port trust announced a nearly six-week partial shutdown of the port-run container terminal, beginning in mid-March, for harbor crane replacement.

Shanghai retained a clear lead at the top of the league table for China’s top 20 container ports in 2013, according to the end of year figures released by the Shanghai Shipping Exchange.

The deputy administrator of the Panama Canal Authority on Tuesday said the $5.25 billion expansion of the Panama Canal will meet the target date of mid-2015.

Singapore is set to benefit this year from its status as one of Asia’s leading transport hubs, as demand from key markets in the West boosts trade.

Despite a strong end to 2013, Hong Kong port still saw container volumes contract 3.6 percent year-on-year.

More than a dozen ongoing port strikes across Chile are threatening copper, fruit and other exports from the South American country, according to multiple news agencies.

The volume of containers shipped via Sri Lanka’s Port of Colombo expanded nearly 3 percent year-over-year in 2013, driven largely by a turnaround in transshipment business, according to data released by the Sri Lankan Ports Authority.

The Panama Canal, following a widely reported payments dispute with contractors that threatens to delay its expansion, went on the counteroffensive this week with a new website designed to provide “Clarification of the most common doubts about the Expansion.”

Contship Italia boosted traffic at its five Italian container terminals by almost one-fifth in 2013, despite a stagnating Italian economy, while its part-owned Moroccan terminal handled more than...

An Indian court has temporarily set aside a plan by the Chennai Port Authority to convert its existing bulk facility into a minor container terminal through a public-private partnership development scheme.

The volume of export and import containers handled by major ports in India declined 4.15 percent year-over-year from April to December...

The Panama Canal Authority said Wednesday it could not negotiate over a new proposal by the consortium that is building its new locks to keep construction work going in the face of its threat to stop work in a dispute over the contractor’s claims for cost overruns.

The Panama Canal Authority on Tuesday has made an offer to resolve its dispute with the contracting consortium that is threatening to suspend construction work on its new locks.

Crowley Maritime’s weekly container service to Cuba later this month will begin calling on the island’s newest terminal, instead of Havana.

Spain’s public works minister and the chairman of Spanish builder Sacyr will visit Panama this weekend to help resolve a $1.6 billion dispute that is threatening to...

The Panama Canal Authority has a contingency plan to fall back on if it cannot resolve its dispute on cost overruns with the engineering consortium that is building its new locks.

The Panama Canal Authority said Thursday it will not bow to pressure by the lead contractor in the engineering consortium that is building its new locks to recover an estimated $1.6 billion in cost overruns that are not covered by the terms of its contract.

Normal operations resumed on Dec. 25 at India’s Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal, a DP World facility in Cochin Port, following the end of a work stoppage action by harbor truck drivers.

A consortium comprising DP World and Mumbai-based J.M. Baxi Group has been selected to build and operate a new container terminal at Visakhapatnam, a major state-owned cargo hub on India’s southeastern coast.

Political protests in Bangladesh are causing lengthy delays for inbound and outbound shipments via Chittagong, the country’s busiest gateway hub port, according to reports from Dhaka.

Port of Antwerp’s container traffic shrunk 0.7 percent in 2013 from a year ago, but is set to accelerate next year after the world’s three largest ocean carriers launch their P3 alliance.

A strike by harbor truck crew over wage improvement and bonus entitlement issues has disrupted normal operations at the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal, a DP World facility in India’s Port of Cochin, according to local shipping sources.

U.S. apparel imports in the third quarter of 2013 tumbled 17.7 percent year-over-year to 181,126 20-foot-equivalent units, the industry’s steepest decline since 2007.

Container ports in northern China are continuing to see far stronger growth than those further south as the economy moves away from its reliance on export-led expansion.

Shipping costs for containers handled at the Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal in India’s Port of Cochin will go up, effective Jan. 1, 2014, following an upward revision of terminal handling charges levied by terminal operator DP World.

The Port of Rotterdam’s container traffic shrunk 1.7 percent this year as continuing economic weakness across Europe froze total cargo volume at the continent’s largest port.

Baltic ports, already the fastest growing European container hubs, are seeking to capitalize on new ocean carrier alliances to attract more cargo, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

The German port Duisburg said it expects to post a 16 percent increase in container traffic in 2013, which will consolidate its position as the world’s biggest inland box hub.

Container throughput at major ports in India tumbled 5.16 percent year-over-year from April through November, but total cargo tonnage inched up 1.43 percent, according to provisional figures released by the Indian Ports Association.

Shippers looking to transship goods via the Caribbean will gain more options and enjoy greater capacity at existing hubs as the opening of the expanded Panama Canal nears. The big question is which Caribbean ports’ dreams of a traffic surge will materialize at the terminals and which ones will fade like a tropical mirage.

The Indian government has released a new global tender for the construction and operation of its long-delayed, multi-purpose deep water Vizhinjam International Seaport...

China’s grip on U.S. footwear imports has been slipping since 2009, leaving room for developing nations to increase their market shares.

WASHINGTON — A $900 million container terminal and free trade zone in northwest Cuba opening in January will be a Caribbean transshipment and could be major gateway for U.S. trade if the embargo ends, according to Cuban Ambassador Jose Cabana.