North American ports

The federal grants lean heavily on further electrification of heavy-duty trucks, but also look to other methods for reducing emissions.

The risk of a strike along the East and Gulf coasts stems from the ILA believing it is entitled to a fair share of the ocean carriers’ pandemic windfall of over $400 billion, as estimated by one industry analyst.

Shippers have long struggled to get direct access to rail milestone data that matches the depth and accuracy of ocean visibility markers.

The gateway’s long-serving chief executive will be replaced by Charlie Jenkins, who is overseeing the widening and deepening of Houston’s ship channel.

The city of Baltimore wants a judge to waive a limit in liability that the container ship’s owner and operator sought after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and subsequent closure of the port.

The port said it was not able to secure an operator for its marine terminal, which was critical to securing further state aid to run the port through the rest of 2024.

All four container terminals at the Port of Oakland were closed for the day shift on Monday as demonstrators protesting the war in Gaza shut down a nearby major freeway and threatened to picket at the port.

Still, more capacity is on the way for India-US shippers, with Ocean Network Express due to start its new West India-USEC standalone connection in late May.

The $11 million program that seeks to increase schedule reliability and volumes comes as the Seattle-Tacoma gateway saw its share of US imports from Asia decline year over year in February.

The import strength goes beyond restocking, showing the impact of a recovery in housing and the US manufacturing resurgence, writes Peter Tirschwell.

The shipping industry’s ability to overcome physical disruptions such as the Port of Baltimore’s closure shouldn’t lull it into complacency because growing geopolitical threats could provide new obstacles that can’t be as easily managed, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

The US DOT has also offered some relief, granting an exemption that permits truck drivers to work an additional two hours of drive time beyond federal limits if the cargo is connected to the Port of Baltimore closure.

Ocean carriers have signaled their belief that US consumer buying will remain strong into the second half of the year by announcing the launch or restart of 11 services involving the trans-Pacific and north-south trades.

And the US Army Corps of Engineers says it expects to clear the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge from Baltimore’s 50-foot-deep shipping channel by the end of May, “restoring port access to normal capacity.”

Norfolk Southern will join CSX in running inter-port trains between New York/New Jersey and Baltimore to limit disruptions involving cargo rerouted after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The decision underscores that ship diversions around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope will likely last through at least the first half of 2024, if not longer, as carriers see no short-term resolution to the uncertain security situation in the region.

The new vessel-sharing agreement will see the introduction of non-CMA CGM ships into a string that runs between the West Coast of South America and ports in the US Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

Negotiations between the railroads and the Teamsters have hit a stumbling block over salary and mandatory rest periods, prompting the union to schedule an April 8 start date for voting on a possible strike notice.

Nearby gateways are preparing to handle the diversion of vessels and freight that would have landed at Baltimore at least through May following the port’s indefinite closure.

Given the ample supply of marine chassis available in the US, chassis providers are confident they can handle any rerouted cargo from the closed Port of Baltimore to other East Coast ports in the short term without issue.

ONE and Yang Ming say the partnership will maintain most of its existing services into next year as it readies for a direct-call model and “speed buffers” to boost schedule reliability.

Recently passed House legislation amending landmark shipping reform takes a hard approach to China’s maritime influence on US ports but holds back on reining in the limited antitrust exemption container lines use to participate in alliances, writes Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

Some of the 18 container ships that were due to arrive at the now-closed Port of Baltimore over the next couple of weeks are now scheduled for new calls at New Jersey, Norfolk and Philadelphia.

Freight diversions to more distant ports will raise trucking costs for US importers and shippers, but excess truckload capacity is expected to dilute the disruption. 

With the fifth-largest container port on the US East Coast now effectively isolated from waterborne traffic, the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after it was struck by a container ship will, at least temporarily, reconfigure the region’s supply chain.

The Georgia Ports Authority is expanding the Port of Savannah’s Ocean Terminal to eventually grow its annual container capacity from 300,000 TEUs to 1.5 million TEUs.

The port is struggling to relieve excessive rail container dwells on its docks caused by an unexpected jump in imports and what some stakeholders say is an inadequate supply of railcars.

The legislation is an attempt to give federal maritime law more teeth to go after what its backers see as market manipulation and potential espionage from China.

The carrier said the restored TP20 service will offer “competitive” transit times just as shippers need to ensure products are in stock for spring and summer.

The purchase of an industrial site next to the terminal is part of Charleston’s plan to allow the facility to handle container ships that are double the size of the vessels it can currently accommodate.

The railroads say they are deploying more intermodal railcars to Los Angeles-Long Beach and adjusting their operations so marine terminals can clear out rail containers and reduce dwell times following strong import volumes early this year.

US imports from Asia last month were up 40% over February 2023, the biggest year-over-year jump for any month since May 2021.

This year’s annual service contract negotiations are occurring amid the latest disruption in container shipping as vessels divert away from the Red Sea and Suez Canal to avoid possible attacks by Houthi militants.

The entry of Hede International in the eastbound trans-Pacific comes as US imports from Asia have been rising on a year-over-year basis since October.

The “essential” designation request, which if granted would have barred workers from striking, comes as talks on a new contract have dragged on for seven months with no resolution.

Seaboard is adding calls to Costa Rica and Panama, among other countries, as Central American economies look to source raw materials from the US.

If the Southern California inland point intermodal surge continues into the “danger zone,” then importers might do well to consider taking advantage of alternate routings in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada, says analyst Larry Gross.

Marine terminals, truckers and warehouse operators say the state must be mindful of the large costs and ambitious deadlines it is imposing on the freight transportation sectors to reduce emissions.

In a sign of confidence in consumer demand, Global Port Tracker expects US imports for the first six months of the year will be up 7.8% compared with the first half of 2023.

CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd and Mediterranean Shipping Co. have confirmed pushing their previously announced rate increases scheduled for this week to the second half of the month.