North American ports

The decision Monday by Outer Harbor Terminal in Oakland to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection will not deter Ports America from continuing to invest in its other container terminals on both the West and East coasts, the company said Wednesday.

Curtis J. Foltz will step down as executive director of the Georgia Ports Authority on June 30 and will be succeeded by Griffith V. Lynch, the agency’s chief operating officer.

The Port of Virginia Monday signed a 40-year lease with the City of Richmond to operate the Richmond Marine Terminal and unveiled new capacity and productivity boosting measures for the river port.

West Coast ports closed out a tumultuous 2015 with a decline of 3 percent in container volume in December, with container traffic also declining 3 percent for the year.

The Port of Wilmington has joined the league of U.S. East Coast ports pouring millions into their harbors to prepare for the larger ships soon to be able to pass through an expanded Panama Canal. But, unlike its regional rivals, the North Carolina port isn't targeting the largest of the new mega-ships.

Cargo diversions from West Coast ports because of labor strife in early 2015 helped make a handful of East and Gulf Coast ports the fastest-growing in the nation last year.

Last Friday’s surprise dockworker strike at the Port of New York and New Jersey wasn’t instigated by any single International Longshoremen’s Association local and was not sanctioned by the union, ILA President Harold Daggett said Monday.

The Georgia Ports Authority grew import volumes through Savannah at rates far exceeding its Southeast competitors and the U.S. as a whole, in large part by attracting big-box retailers such as Home Depot, Target and IKEA to establish import distribution centers nearby. But forces coming to bear on the retail industry, including e-commerce and a relentless need to drive out costs, are changing the picture at Savannah.

The Port of Oakland Board of Port Commissioners renewed a project labor agreement that will increase hiring in the region for port-related capital projects.

A Port of Oakland efficiency task force pledged this week to work toward consistent truck wait times at container terminals of no more than 45 minutes for a single transaction and 90 minutes for a dual transaction, compared to wait times of two hours or longer that some truckers say they regularly experience.

The port of Savannah finished 2015 with record volume, including a 20.4 percent increase in full import containers, but Georgia Ports Authority CEO Curtis Foltz said growth is likely to slow this year.

Four container terminals at the Port of New York and New Jersey will remain closed for a second day as the U.S. Northeast dug out after a weekend winter storm buried the region with two or more feet of snow.

The pending departure of Ports America and its joint-venture partner Terminal Investment Ltd. from Oakland will give the port an opportunity to more efficiently utilize its terminal assets and possibly to re-purpose land for non-container uses, executive director Chris Lytle said Thursday.

Some port terminals on the U.S. North Atlantic Coast are revising their operating hours in preparation for Winter Storm Jonas, which is expected to hit the East Coast with heavy snow on Saturday.

After near-unprecedented congestion rocked the Port of Virginia in 2015, the 50-foot-deep port says it’s ready to handle brisk volume growth coming via the larger vessels soon to move through the expanded Panama Canal — and do so efficiently.

International container traffic in the Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma increased 8.4 percent in December from December 2014, driven primarily by strong exports.

The Port of Long Beach is guiding more than $4 billion in investments that will keep the second-largest U.S. container port nimble so it can respond to shifts in global manufacturing and trade patterns, pending mergers among ocean carriers and the arrival of the biggest vessels to call in North America, the port’s CEO Jon Slangerup said in his State of the Port address.

Despite watershed changes taking place in the shipping industry in 2016, the market share of containerized imports of East, West and Gulf Coast ports this year is set look a lot like it did during the second half of 2015, according to port and industry analysts.

Container volume at the Port of Charleston rose 10.1 percent last year, to 1.97 million 20-foot-equivalent units, but the port authority’s chief executive expects slower growth during the first half of 2016.

New Orleans Cold Storage has more than doubled the size of its facility near Charleston, South Carolina, with an 81,000-square-foot expansion that more than doubles its blast-freezing capacity.

Port truckers at the Port of New York and New Jersey will soon test ways to measure their wait times both inside and outside container terminal gates, providing visibility that could be the basis of an hourly surcharge to drayage customers.

Thirty miles of steel girders for a new highway bridge rising over the Hudson River near New York City are being delivered on a roundabout route using trucks, barges and ports with the space to handle the big cargo.

The flawless discharge and reloading of the CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest container ship ever to call at a North American port, proves the Southern California port complex’s efforts to more efficiently handle mega-ships are paying off, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said last week.

More than 100 shippers groups urged the U.S. Department of Transportation to drill down on port productivity metrics via a new initiative aimed at helping Uncle Sam better monitor marine terminal congestion.

Container traffic at the Port of Los Angeles in December declined 4.9 percent from the same month the previous year, reflecting the normal seasonal lull and the loss of a handful of services to the neighboring Port of Long Beach.

Container volume moving through the Port of Long Beach in December increased 5.1 percent over December 2014, helping to propel the port to the third best year in its history.

Money, environmental and labor issues are complicating the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s effort to replace or retrofit old trucks with newer, less-polluting engines.

A proposed $272 million CSX Transportation intermodal hub would give shippers using the Port of Wilmington better access to the fast-growing markets of Charlotte, Raleigh and the Research Triangle, along with the entirety of the CSX network.

Deepening of the Port of Charleston’s 45-foot channel to 52 feet moved a step closer this week when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommended congressional authorization of the project.

The Port of Virginia’s container volume topped 2.5 million 20-foot-equivalent units for the first time as its terminals posted a 6.5 percent increase in TEUs during 2015, despite a decline in December volume.

A proposal by the Port of Long Beach to reduce the amount of time allowed for the storage of containers at marine terminals from four days at present to six work shifts has brought into sharp focus the congestion issues that cargo interests face not only in Southern California, but at all major gateways as they struggle to handle some of the largest container ships afloat.

Seatrade Group’s StreamLines, N.V. plans to add a call at Port Canaveral to its weekly Blue Stream container ship service between the Caribbean and Central America and Europe, giving the Florida port its first regular container service.

Container throughput at the Port of Oakland in December declined 8.3 percent as both imports and exports were down compared to a relatively strong December 2014, according to numbers posted on the port’s website.

Retailers who ship through the Port of Long Beach urged the second-largest U.S. port not to move forward with its proposal to change free time provisions in its tariff from four days at present to six work shifts until the Southern California port complex gets a better handle on its congestion problems.

An environmental group criticized as “disgraceful” a plan by the Port of New York and New Jersey to relax a Jan. 1, 2017, deadline for replacement of more than 6,000 port drayage trucks with newer vehicles.

Container ship lines say they’ve been forced to skip port calls at New Orleans because of high Mississippi River levels that have reduced clearance under bridges.

Port Canaveral has selected Capt. John W. Murray, President and CEO of Hapag-Lloyd USA, to lead the port.

The refurbished Nutter terminal at the Port of Oakland will receive its first vessel call Friday since Everport Terminal Services closed the facility in early November for upgrades.

Florida’s Port Everglades is looking into developing a regional logistics center on roughly 16.7 acres of land at the port.

South Carolina Ports Authority CEO and President Jim Newsome sat down with JOC.com Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi on the sidelines of JOC.com’s annual Port Performance North America Conference in December to discuss the Port of Charleston’s strong performance in 2015, the port’s future prospects amid slowing global trade, and the steps its taking to handle mega-ships that will soon call at East Coast ports.