North American ports

Drayage truckers in the Port of New York and New Jersey fear that a proposal to ban trucks with engines aged 1996 and older would make the port uncompetitive.

Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka tells JOC.com a port-wide trucker appointment system and off-dock chassis storage must be implemented now if the nation's largest port complex is going to avoid terminal congestion and equipment dislocations in the upcoming peak season.

Port of Mobile CEO Jimmy Lyons is optimistic about the Alabama port’s future, but he adamantly opposes the restrictions brought on by US trade disputes.

A fatal incident shut down the Fenix Marine Services (APL) terminal in the Port of Los Angeles Wednesday.

The North Carolina Ports Authority is taking strides to be able to handle larger containerships while also developing quicker CSX service with its intermodal terminal in Charlotte to capture more business now sent to competitors.

Officials at the Port of New York and New Jersey say that although the steady increase in vessel sizes and discharge volumes at the port means that 20 percent of all containers are moved on ships of 13,000 TEU or more, the terminals have been able to handle the cargo smoothly.

The first Central American vessel as part of two vessel strings from Seaboard Marine to the US East coast visited Savannah this week, a growing trade lane that has generated a 70 percent increase in imports in Georgia since 2014.

According to the NRF's monthly Global Port Tracker report, major US container ports will see "unusually high levels" of retail imports through the first half of the year despite Trump administration threats to raise tariffs on Chinese-made goods.

Shippers that import and export goods through the Port of Houston are being urged to contact legislators and express opposition to two bills that would limit mega-ship calls at the port to one a week.

Thanks to the country’s strong manufacturing sector and reasonable economic growth, the increase in cargo handled by Mexico’s ports outpaced that of both the US and Canada in 2018.

Oakland port commissioners set May 13 date to move forward on up to a four-year environmental and construction permit process that will ultimately determine if a controversial baseball stadium is built at Howard Terminal.

Port of Oakland's proactive approach of meeting regularly with terminals, carriers, truckers, and BCOs to address operational issues early on has helped the Northern California port to avoid the congestion that plagued LA-LB this past year.

Non-container vessel operators and users say the increasing size of container ships, and the narrowness of the channel, means that other ships are sometimes restricted from using the channel because container ships are so large no other vessel can occupy the channel.

Australian banking and investment group Macquarie Infrastructure Partners already has stakes in New Jersey's Maher Terminals at Port Elizabeth and Penn Terminals.

Supply chain stakeholders in the Port of Oakland argue that the development of a new baseball stadium on port property will disrupt trucking and rail operations, potentially bringing the port to “gridlock.”

The Port of Oakland is working with the city on a truck traffic plan that seeks to mitigate impact of growing container volumes and logistics developments on nearby neighborhoods.

The Port of Los Angeles is attracting support from ocean carriers, terminal operators, truckers, railroads, and other stakeholders for a proposed "cyber resilience center."

The port of Savannah expects to handle an additional 25,000 containers of resins exports this year thanks to plans by Plastic Express to expand production in Georgia.

As volumes front-loaded by retailers and manufacturers ahead of planned tariff increases during the winter months have subsided, so too has the congestion that gripped the largest US port complex.

Two inland ports tied to the Port of New York and New Jersey by rail could help get trucks off the road but, if completed, they won’t alleviate storage pressure expected to rise as the port grows its discretionary rail volume to the Midwest.

While the Port of Houston Authority ruled that only one container vessel larger than 9,500 TEU could traverse the port channel each week, the authority argues that enshrining the limit into law could have sweeping consequences that would damage the port economy.

Applications are now being accepted for $900 million in USDOT BUILD grants for the upcoming fiscal year, a 40 percent reduction from the $1.5 billion made available last year for port, road, and rail projects.

Jeffrey A. Bader, the former president of the largest trucking group in the Port of New York and New Jersey, will be succeeded by Lisa Yakomin, who has held responsibility for communications and government affairs at the association.

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission has again delayed a decision on APM Terminals' plan to automate a portion of its Pier 400 facility in the Port of LA, giving the terminal operator and the ILWU 30 days to reach an agreement on how best to proceed with the project.

A nationwide search for a new port director at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has led to the appointment of in-house candidate Sam Ruda.

Resin industry and other exporters are bracing for the impact of a new Port of Houston regulation limiting mega-ship transport on the port’s main channel to one a week.

Truck turn times, container dwell times, and chassis availability are improving in LA-LB now that import volumes have dropped.

Virginia Port Authority CEO John Reinhart says the port could see multiple mega-ships calling at once by 2020, as carriers move away from smaller vessels under the IMO’s low-sulfur fuel rules.

A new Los Angeles-Long Beach CAAP report finds battery-powered trucks and natural gas-powered trucks are best suited to achieve the ports' short-term emissions goals through 2021.

Ports leaders say the death of Jeffrey A. Bader, president of the Association of Bi-State Motor Carriers, who was active on a committee to improve efficiency at the Port of New York and New Jersey, will leave a leadership gap in the port.

SSA Terminals will take control of the currently vacant Terminal 5, a move that will allow the Northwest Seaport Alliance to consolidate international container traffic at two terminals each in the ports of Seattle and Tacoma.

After a few false starts, producers and transportation providers are preparing for a surge in US exports of resins in 2019 and beyond.

Although Jacksonville will lose a weekly Asian service to Tampa in May, the port remains confident it will get new trans-Pacific services as SSA Marine expands the Blount Island terminal and can diversify into other markets as dredging deepens the harbor.

As exports from the region waned, expansion of all-water services from Asia and a boom in import distribution facilities contributed to double-digit growth in imports to US Gulf ports last year.

A slowing US economy and huge front-loading of spring cargoes in late 2018 point to muted import growth in 2019.

The switch from an incentive-based pricing model thus far has had little impact on traffic patterns at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, but truckers are waiting to see how it operates once the ports are congestion free.

Savannah led Asian import growth among top US ports last year and aims to increase its market share further by reaching deeper into interior US with expanded intermodal rail.

Steven M. Cernak, a veteran of the ports of Galveston, Everglades, and New York-New Jersey passed away over the weekend.

Long Beach's dilemma over choosing a port information portal highlights questions of how much shipment information is needed to improve efficiency for BCOs and truckers and how much users will be willing to pay for that data.

Dallas cargo owners will lose a rail option to Houston in late April