North American ports

The US Department of Agriculture has approved nine new locations for its longstanding in-transit cold treatment program in the southern and western parts of the country.

Three announcements show how the fast-growing port of Savannah — with volume up 25 percent in the last three fiscal years — is making moves toward its goal of having 11 million TEU in annual capacity by 2035.

Expanding an appointment system in the Port of New York and New Jersey could hamper the ability of truckers to pick up cargo, according to the head of the largest drayage group operating at the port.

A shift in focus by the Tioga Marine Terminal (TMT) to handling forestry products five years ago has drawn enough business that the terminal and the Port of Philadelphia are now building a new $12 million, 100,000-square-foot warehouse to handle wood and paper products.

The Port of Long Beach last year already achieved its 2023 goals for cuts in diesel particulate matter and sulfur oxide emissions, and came close to achieving its nitrogen oxide goal.

As part of the Port of New York and New Jersey’s effort to increase rail cargo efficiency, terminals are encouraging ocean carriers to place containers headed for a similar destination in one part of the vessel so they can be removed from the ship faster.

Ports in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia are expected to reopen this weekend with relatively normal operations, while the Port of Halifax waits to see how much of an impact Dorian will have there.

Terminals at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex are performing consistently better than they did last winter, when warehouses in Southern California were overwhelmed by the front-loading of imports that resulted from the Trump administration’s tariffs on imports from China.

The 2M Alliance has added the Port of New Orleans to a route linking China with the Gulf of Mexico, giving the Gulf Coast port its second service from the Far East and adding to its rapidly growing volume of import cargo.

Electric-powered trucks, straddle carriers, and other equipment will become increasingly common at the Port of New York and New Jersey as it steps up its efforts to reduce diesel fuel use in a bid to cut pollution.

The activities of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor - long a target for employers and labor in the Port of New York and New Jersey - are again the focus of opposition from New Jersey officials, who have opted to appeal a court ruling that the state could not unilaterally withdraw from the commission.

Ports along Florida’s east coast were eyeing Hurricane Dorian warily, with the latest forecasts projecting the storm will make landfall there Monday, possibly as a category 4 hurricane.

Emerging from a summer in which terminals suffered sporadic labor shortages, the Port of New York and New Jersey is launching a program to improve efficiency in the way weekend labor crews are formed, and looking to cut the number of workers who don’t report for assigned shifts.

In order to prevent further loss of market share, Los Angeles and Long Beach are seeking approval from their harbor commissions to collaborate on supply chain optimization initiatives.

The Port of Virginia will shift more vessel calls to the Virginia International Gateway (VIG) terminal so shippers using rail can receive their cargo faster.

The five terminals that comprise the New York Terminal Conference in the Port of New York and New Jersey will increase demurrage fees in October as part of their annual fee revision process.

The Army Corps of Engineers awarded two contracts this week for the final steps to complete the harbor deepening in Savannah and Charleston.

Terminal operators say an increase in truck turn times in Los Angeles and Long Beach last month does not signal a return to the congestion experienced during the 2018 peak season.

The port of Savannah’s intermodal terminal expansion project is about 40 percent complete as rail volumes set a new record in July.

The first use of an electric drayage truck in the Port of New York and New Jersey adds to the portfolio of initiatives in use by the port in a bid to reduce truck pollution without hurting port efficiency.

The latest upgrade work at the port of Houston’s Barbours Cut Terminal that will enable the facility to handle rapidly growing cargo volumes received the backing of Port of Houston Authority, which agreed to spend $39.7 million on the project.

Los Angeles and Long Beach are still promoting portwide acceptance of off-dock chassis storage yards despite concerns about ILWU extending its reach in the harbor.

Shawn Tibbetts, who joined the Port of Virginia in 2003 and oversaw the implementation of a truck appointment system at the Virginia International Gateway and the rollout of Navis N4 at VIG this year, is leaving the port later this month to join a real estate investment trust.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and New York City officials are engaged in an ongoing effort to increase the use of barges.

The lead investor in a container support facility in Los Angeles criticized the port for what he termed giving in to political and ILWU pressure by declaring a key efficiency initiative known as the Harbor Performance Enhancement Center to be “infeasible.”

Cargo is growing again at GCT New York, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey sees the terminal’s unused capacity as ripe for development to meet the port’s future needs.

Grants awarded under the Infrastructure for Rebuilding America (INFRA) program will support 20 projects across the United States, including the elevation of a tunnel to allow double-stacked trains get into the Port of Baltimore and the rehabilitation of a Port of Miami container terminal.

A study of shipper interest in moving cargo by barge on different routes around the Northeast Coast is expected to be underway by the end of the year in the latest exploration by New York and other authorities of ways to shift cargo from trucks to barges, reducing pollution and congestion.

A so-called “Cyber Resilience Center” would give Port of Los Angeles stakeholders a centralized forum in which to share information on potential cyber threats.

Yilport and the Mississippi State Port Authority are making headway in agreeing to a concession and aim to have a binding letter of intent — featuring a roadmap of planned investments — by the end of the year.

Maryland and the Port of Baltimore will have to find $103 million in funds for the $466 million Howard Street Tunnel project after the federal government awarded only $125 million, just over half of the $228 million requested.

A VIP program to be rolled out by Fenix Marine and Blume Global in Los Angeles this autumn aims to push actionable shipment data and appointment slots for specific containers to BCOs, NVOs, and truckers to reduce truck visit times as well as cut down on multiple handling of containers.

A new study shows a growing percentage of the Port of New York and New Jersey drayage fleet is making its first stop close to the port, an apparent reflection of the desire by shippers and logistics providers to use near-port warehouse space. That demand continues to create a tight market, with lease rates hitting new highs in the second quarter.

The traffic mitigation fee that is used to offset the costs of operating night and weekend gates at Los Angeles-Long beach has been a sore point for BCOs, who want greater transparency on the collection of fees and how the revenue i dispersed.

Three months after a federal court voided the 2018 results of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union’s election of top officers, the union is still awaiting instructions for holding a new election.

The prolonged rent increases over the past decade for logistics space are beginning to moderate, although growing imports and strong demand for e-commerce fulfillment space in the largest seaport cities will keep industrial real estate development robust through the end of the year.

Truckers say the owner-operator model underpinning much of New Jersey’s trucking sector is threatened by a series of measures adopted by Governor Phil Murphy designed to crack down on the misclassification of full-time employees as independent contractors.

New Jersey’s approval of an 1,100-megawatt offshore wind project could be the start of a wave of offshore wind projects that the Port of New York and New Jersey believes will eventually require a specialized terminal to support the wind energy supply chain.

Terminal operators worry that when peak season volumes begin to build in August, container dwell times at on-dock rail yards will surge, and then rapidly spin out of control as they did last year.

The cargo terminal at the Port of New Orleans has been shut and the Port of Houston is on alert as the Gulf Coast braces for Tropical Storm Barry, which could make landfall along the Louisiana coast late Friday or early Saturday as a Category 1 hurricane.