Marine terminals

The Port of Long Beach will increase its annual throughput capacity by 1 million TEU in December when Long Beach Container Terminal opens a third vessel berth.

As Southern California ports begin to see the movement of long-dwelling containers, a second terminal operator in Tacoma will begin charging a similar fee, highlighting the need for quick action by West Coast ports to reduce congestion.

Husky Terminal in Tacoma is the first container terminal in the Northwest Seaport Alliance to charge fees for excessive-dwell containers following a similar move in Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Observers say emergency container fees in Los Angeles-Long Beach will harm small and mid-sized shippers that don’t have favorable arrangements with carriers for container storage that big-box retailers do.

Terminal operators in Los Angeles-Long Beach say 24/7 gate hours are not feasible until retailers and truckers make better use of the 20 hours each weekday that are already available to them.

Terminal operators in Los Angeles-Long Beach are not getting the response they expected from retailers and shippers despite efforts to keep gates open longer to relieve peak season congestion.

The industry has had countless discussions of the “chassis problem,” without much, if any, change resulting. The current crisis indicates that further inaction is not an option, writes JOC analyst Larry Gross.

Australian dockworkers are threatening to unleash a wave of strikes and work bans a Patrick Terminals, even as the ports struggle to keep facilities staffed amid COVID-19 infections.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and their terminal operators seek quick relief from congestion problems as vessel bunching reaches historic levels.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach promise quick action to extend gate hours amid record cargo volumes, but their suggestions need buy-in from terminal operators, truckers, and shippers.

Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach announce new measures and incentives to speed cargo velocity as near-record freight volumes show no signs of slowing and congestion mounts.

Their shared experience amid COVID-19 has brought longshore labor and employers on the West and East coasts closer together and is helping the ports to handle record cargo volumes this year, terminal operators said.

The failure of importers to move their containers from the docks to their warehouses in a timely manner is the root cause of congestion at both East and West coast ports, terminal operators say.

Asset providers say it will be difficult in the short term to satisfy the transportation requirements needed to handle growing cargo volumes in Southern California.

Fenix Marine Service’s new crane order is the next step in the terminal’s expansion plans to increase throughput capacity and improve productivity as the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach grapple with congestion in another year of record container volumes.

Carriers that had struggled to find ships to deploy in new services in the booming trans-Pacific say their main challenge now is to find space at West Coast terminals.

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic last year forced container throughput at the world’s largest ports down for the first time in four years due to lockdowns and factory closures around the world.

Completion of the Long Beach Container Terminal expansion project provides an additional 1 million TEU in annual capacity as new trans-Pacific services and extra-loader vessels search for terminal space amid record import volumes.

Almost every performance indicator in Los Angeles-Long Beach is trending positively, but increasing rail container dwell times could threaten the terminals’ ability to handle peak season volumes if the backlog of rail containers isn’t moved soon.

Total Terminals International informed the ILWU on Monday it intends to automate its Long Beach terminal, as the union urges port and city officials to consider the loss of jobs that results from automation.

The LA-LB port complex is clearing out its cargo backlog, with the goal of the ports and terminal operators being to return to normal fluidity before the 2021 peak-shipping season begins in August.

In its drive to be more than a port terminal operator, DP World is spearheading a program that gives traders in “south–south” lanes between emerging markets logistics benefits for routing trade through Dubai’s airport and seaport.

The new head of TraPac joins the company at a time when terminal operators in Southern California are facing severe congestion driven by near-record container volumes.

If the only meaningful discussions with labor occur within the context of contentious and disruptive contract negotiations, no policy approach to the issue of container throughput can hope to yield lasting solutions.

Although railcar availability in Los Angeles-Long Beach is approaching normal levels, container terminal operators say they need twice the number of railcars they normally receive in order to reduce the backlog of rail containers that is clogging their facilities.

A good chunk of the current North American port tightness is not simply elevated market demand, but rather strong demand colliding with sinking productivity as congestion mounts.

A severe shortage of railcars in Los Angeles-Long Beach is causing rail container dwell times to double, which is further stressing already-congested terminals and inhibiting the ability of the terminals to ship imports to inland rail hubs.

NY-NJ chassis providers pledge to add more equipment due to the import surge, which has tested the region’s reliance on trucker-controlled chassis.

There is no solution currently on the horizon that will prevent the next meltdown at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, irrespective of what triggers it.

Months-long congestion and the slow return of empty containers at the ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and New York and New Jersey are flowing inland to key rail hubs such as Chicago and Dallas.

The scheduled March 10 rollout of Blume Global’s VIP Solution aims to simplify and expedite the process of making trucker appointments in order to improve truck turn times.

While Indian terminals had fewer ships to process, especially in the first half of 2020, that operational flexibility was eclipsed by widespread landside challenges and labor shortages.

Truck turn times and container dwell times deteriorated further in Los Angeles-Long Beach in December, with even the best-performing terminals struggling to handle the volumes.

Port software provider Portchain has grown the number of terminals using its berth optimization solution to two transshipment hubs in Europe as terminals seek to better align equipment, capacity, and human resources to vessel calls.

Intermodal equipment providers issue a dire warning that chassis shortages in Southern California will persist into next year, but truckers say that is unacceptable.

While Halifax was the best way station immediately available for Montreal-bound containers, it still lacks capabilities as an emergency valve for Canadian importers due to its remoteness from inland distribution networks, stakeholders say.

The congestion that has plagued the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach over the past two months is expected to get worse in the coming weeks owing to a “record” spike in imports.

Cargo handling and delivery of import containers to truckers in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has been severely compromised by the three-month import surge from Asia that continues at a double-digit year-over-year clip.

The pandemic-induced slowdown in global trade earlier in the year played a role in the marginal improvement in port efficiency since ports had to handle fewer boxes overall, but avoiding landside constraints also helped.

Mounting congestion at marine terminals in Los Angeles and Long Beach is adding to the woes of importers who have already been contending with shortages of equipment, warehouse workers and truck capacity.