International ports

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.

APM Terminals Rotterdam Maasvlakte I in the Netherlands has plans to enhance five of its existing post-Panamax cranes to a 23-container row reach...

Manufacturers of high-technology products all over the globe are near-shoring or intending to move production closer to the markets they serve.

The volume of containers handled by major state-owned ports in India declined 4.56 percent year-over-year from April through October, but total cargo tonnage was up 1.68 percent, according to the latest provisional traffic data released by the Indian Ports Association.

Maquiladoras, or manufacturers in Mexico focused on exports, were on a roll this year. Barely a week went by without a major shipper announcing its plans to set up shop or expand operations in Mexico. Then the government stepped in. Through a $14 billion tax plan, maquiladoras face a value added tax of 16 percent that kicks in 2015 and an income tax rise from 17.5 percent to 30 percent, starting next year

North European ports are expected to see “relatively strong growth” in the first half of 2014, despite the “miserable results” forecast for 2013...

The cost of apparel production in Bangladesh will rise “markedly” in the coming years, pushing down containerized exports to the U.S., said Journal of Commerce Economist Mario Moreno.

In the last decade, Italy’s Port of Livorno has become increasingly reliant on roll-on, roll-off traffic, signifying a shift in the port’s long-term outlook.

The Suez Canal is steadily luring Asia-to-east coast of North America traffic from the Panama Canal thanks to the economies of scale it offers ocean carriers...

Is the Panama Canal losing its position as the dominant route for East Coast importers of cargo from Asia? Will it be able to regain the services it has been losing to the Suez route when it’s finally able to open its large new locks to post-Panamax ships at the end of 2015?

Bangladesh exporters are unable to get their goods out of the country via the Port of Chittagong, the country’s busiest port, after trucking companies refused to deliver goods because of vandalism fears, according to reports.

London Gateway, the first major new port to be built in the U.K. for several decades, will open for business on the north bank of the River Thames on Wednesday, Nov. 6.

France’s Port of Le Havre has welcomed the maiden call of the Glovis Condor, a roll-on, roll-off vessel owned by Glovis, a South Korean company.

Rotterdam’s container traffic declined 1 percent year-over-year in the first nine months of 2013 as the impact of a sluggish European economy was compounded by the loss of traffic to its German rivals.

The Panama Canal expansion’s completion date has been delayed from April 2015 to June 2015 in the Pacific locks, according the Panama Canal Authority.

Despite the Port of Antwerp’s cargo volume increase of 3 percent year-over-year in the first nine months of 2013, the gain was offset by an almost matching decline in its key container traffic.

Four super-post-Panamax cranes that arrived at the Port of Savannah in June are now fully operational at Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City Terminal.

It certainly didn’t get wide play, but when President Obama spoke about the transformation of an industrial warehouse during his February State of the Union Address, the message to supply chain interests rang loud and clear. “A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything,” he said.

The number of foreign trade containers handled by the Port of Kobe in western Japan fell 1.1 percent in the first half of 2013 from a year earlier to about 1.019 million 20-foot-foot equivalent units, according to preliminary figures released by the Kobe municipal government.

Re-shoring, near-shoring, near-sourcing. Whatever you call it, the terms to describe the shift of manufacturing closer to destination markets in North America may be a permanent part of the logistics lexicon and supply chains in general.

Re-shoring production to the United States will mean less import volume for container lines but allow them to reduce empty container repositioning for exports, said Bronson Hsieh, vice group chairman of Evergreen Group.

Construction of Liverpool2, the Port of Liverpool’s deep water container terminal, has entered a new phase, as steel piling gets underway in the River Mersey.

Tim Waggott has been named as chief executive of the Port of Dover, according to the U.K. port’s harbor board.

Container traffic at major ports in India tumbled 4.5 percent year-over-year in the first half of fiscal year 2013-14, but total cargo throughput was up 2.3 percent...

The 13,400-TEU Cosco England has made its maiden call at the U.K.’s Port of Felixstowe.

The seemingly endless flood of large vessels into the global container trades has created a pressing need in Canada to invest in its seaports and inland infrastructure.

Cargo throughput at India’s Port of Mumbai slid 4.5 percent year-over-year in the first half of fiscal year 2013-14, according to the port authority.

Nectar Group, a U.K.-based provider of port-related services, has entered into a joint venture with Portman India to offer port and terminal management services in India.

Three organizations have responded to a request for qualification for the public-private partnership contract to build and operate a new container terminal at India’s Port of Chennai...

Original equipment manufacturers are urgently targeting the heady potential offered by Myanmar’s untapped consumer market, low wages and excellent trading potential.

The Association of Canadian Port Authorities’ board of directors has selected Sylvie Vachon, president and CEO of the Montreal Port Authority, to be chair of the board for 2013-14.

The second phase of a €100 million (about US$135.3 million) modernization program at Conakry Terminal in Guinea is still on schedule...