North American ports

Container traffic in Los Angeles last month reached a record high for the month of February at the largest U.S. port, and the strong growth of 42 percent over February 2015 could indicate that 2016 will exceed earlier projections of modest growth this year in the trans-Pacific trades. Neighboring Long Beach’s reaching record monthly volume in February further buoys optimism for import demand.

The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor has subpoenaed numerous longshoremen in an effort to identify the organizers and cause of a Jan. 29 wildcat strike that idled the East Coast’s busiest port.

Norfolk Southern Railway is enhancing its twice-weekly intermodal rail service connecting the Port of Charleston and Charlotte, North Carolina, to five times a week to meet rising freight demand, the South Carolina Ports Authority announced Thursday.

The Port of Long Beach last month recorded the busiest February in its 105-year history, and as an added bonus, inaugurated a new era of trans-Pacific shipping with the arrival of the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest vessel ever to call in North America with a capacity of 18,000 20-foot container units.

LONG BEACH, California — For beneficial cargo owners, the marine terminal used to be a big black hole that their containers would fall into and somehow magically emerge a few days later. Today, BCOs are an extension of the operations staff at the most successful ports.

Container traffic at the Port of Baltimore jumped 12 percent year-over-year in January, after the Maryland port saw volume rise 8 percent year-over-year last year to a record 523,848 containers.

Several dozen drayage operators have signed up for the latest program to replace the Port of New York and New Jersey’s oldest trucks with newer, less-polluting models, and officials are trying to persuade others to follow suit.

A strong dollar took a big chunk out of exports at major U.S. gateways in 2015. Most of the U.S. ports that handle more than 50,000 20-foot-equivalent units recorded declines in export volume, according to preliminary data from PIERS, a sister product of JOC.com within IHS.

Whether it’s the growing presence of mega-ships at U.S. ports, the proliferation of mandatory appointment systems at marine terminals or the transfer of carrier-owned chassis to equipment leasing firms, harbor trucking companies are paying a price for decisions made by other members of the transportation supply chain.

U.S. ports are supposed to steadily gain more federal funding each year, but a strong U.S. dollar could stymie Congress’ framework for providing more money for dredging and jetty maintenance.

Thursday’s announcement by CMA CGM that beginning in May the carrier’s Pearl River Express service will operate each week with mega-ships carrying up to 18,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units sent West Coast ports into a frenzy of preparatory efforts.

The rise in refrigerated cargo shipments is good news for major container ports, including the Port of Charleston. In an interview with Cool Cargoes Editor Lara L. Sowinski, Jim Newsome, president and CEO of South Carolina Ports Authority, shares his perspective on what it takes to accommodate reefer cargo and how the SCPA is positioning itself to capitalize on the future growth of this specialized cargo.

The Port of New York and New Jersey’s full containerized imports rose 5 percent in January despite a blizzard, a wildcat strike, and tough comparisons with January 2015, when volume spiked amid West Coast port delays.

The major question facing carriers in the trans-Pacific trades this year isn’t how much cargo will move, but whether U.S. West and East Coast ports will be up to the challenge of handling the big ships carrying the goods. For beneficial cargo owners, the message is that they must be nimble in their cargo routing, and they must have close working relationships with ocean carriers, trucking companies, warehouses and railroads, to ensure BCOs have the transportation capacity they need where and when they need it.

As the deadline for the International Maritime Organization’s controversial new container weight rule nears, it’s still unclear whether railroads will accept containers without their verified gross mass documentation.

Despite slowing U.S. economy, the industrial real estate sector in 2016 will experience disciplined but broad-based expansion as retailers seek quality warehouse and distribution space for both their brick-and-mortar and e-commerce fulfillment needs, according to developer Prologis.

Texas's non-container ports are in the middle of a multiyear boom brought on by construction of massive industrial plants that are being built around the ports of Brownsville and Corpus Christi to take advantage of the abundance of shale oil and gas flowing out of the Eagle Ford oil shale field in South Texas.

Houston port is gearing up to handle a quantum leap in containerized exports of plastic resins that will be produced at the billions of dollars’ worth of petrochemical plants due to come on line in the next three or four years.

The Port of Oakland Board of Port Commissioners Friday agreed to a lease termination with Outer Harbor Terminals that will ensure an efficient migration of cargo to other terminals in the Northern California port, Maritime Director John Driscoll said.

As the industry prepares for the controversial new verified weight rules that go into effect this July, the Port of Charleston is the first U.S. port to say it is willing and game to provide in-terminal weighing services for containers if allowed to do so by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The Port of Charleston’s full-container volume in January slipped 2 percent percent year-over-year, and South Carolina Ports Authority CEO Jim Newsome said volume is expected to remain flat until spring.

International container volume at the Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma surged 25 percent in January compared to the same month last year, beginning what port officials say should be a strong year for container traffic.

Container volume at the Port of Virginia was flat in January, rising 0.4 percent year-over-year although its little sister Richmond Marine Terminal on the Charles River posted its best January in history, growing 45 percent year-over-year with 1,295 twenty-foot-equivalent units.

Marine terminals in Los Angeles-Long Beach that have collaborated with cargo interests and truckers on creative programs such as dray-offs and free-flow of containers recorded the best gate turn times in January, according to data published by the Harbor Trucking Association. But even those gains weren’t able to speed overall truck turn times much at the top U.S. container port complex.

The eyes of Texas and other U.S. Gulf ports are fixed on the opening of the new Panama Canal locks later this spring. Port executives expect the long-delayed opening to post-Panamax vessel traffic will be a seminal event in the growth of their volumes, but later rather than sooner.

This spring’s arrival of three post-Panamax cranes at the Port of Gulfport, Mississippi, has been upstaged by a shipyard contract that’s expected to get the port off the hook for repayment of millions of dollars in hurricane relief funds.

The Port of Oakland Commission Thursday approved a $1.5 million program to help fund night and weekend gates during the next 12 weeks when Outer Harbor Terminals will transition out of the port and its cargo volume is redistributed to other facilities.

APM Terminals plans to retrofit at least five cranes at its Pier 400 terminal at Los Angeles to make them capable of handling fully laden mega-ships of up to 20,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units.

In a sign that U.S. container volumes in 2016 could turn out better than forecast, the Port of Los Angeles last month handled 704,398 twenty-foot-equivalent units, making it the busiest January in the port’s history.

Truck turn times at the Middle Harbor container terminal in Long Beach will improve greatly when the automated facility receives its first vessel April 7 because truck traffic will be completely separated from vessel operations, the company’s top executive said.

Maher Terminals, the largest container terminal in the Port of New York and New Jersey, is continuing to pursue litigation claiming it’s being unfairly charged higher rent than adjacent APM Terminals.

Container traffic at the Port of Oakland in January soared 38.5 percent compared to January 2015, indicating the market share that the Northern California port lost during the coastwide labor disruptions last year has been regained.

The White House’s $4.1 trillion budget proposal unveiled Tuesday once again falls far short of the targets set by legislation President Obama, himself, signed less than two years ago.

Containerized imports at U.S. ports are projected to increase by double digits in January and February compared to the same months last year, when dozens of vessels were stranded outside of West Coast ports due to labor problems.

Big increases in loaded import containers and empty export boxes pushed the Port of New York and New Jersey’s 2015 volume to a record 6,371,720 twenty-foot-equivalent units, despite soft December totals and continuing problems with congestion.

Rather than being a loss for the Port of Oakland, the pending departure of Outer Harbor Terminal will be an economic plus to the port complex because it will concentrate more revenue-producing container volume into fewer marine terminals in order to fund their growth, Executive Director Chris Lytle said at the weekend.

Efforts to improve chassis quality and availability in the Port of New York and New Jersey are inching forward despite the long delay in the launch of a common chassis pool, a Port Authority of New York and New Jersey official said.

Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Mario Cordero said he sympathizes with Los Angeles and Long Beach port users seeking less truck congestion and more transparency from the ports’ PierPass program for off-hours truck gates.

U.S. Rep. Janice Hahn Wednesday blasted the Port of Los Angeles for allegedly failing to adhere to pollution-reduction measures promised to the community, which she called a “disturbing trend,” when in fact the port’s 2014 emissions inventory shows the trend has been to meet pollution standards nine years ahead of schedule.

Lisa Wieland has been named executive director of the agency that oversees Boston's airport and seaport.