North American ports

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plans to revise its clean-air plan by lifting a truck-replacement deadline that would have banned more than 6,000 drayage trucks from container terminals next Jan. 1.

U.S. ports and terminal operators are addressing congestion by building larger, modern facilities, some of which feature the latest in automation. They are extending terminal gate hours, testing innovative processes such as container dray-offs and peel-offs, and investing in land-side connectors.

CSX Transportation and Ports America Chesapeake have signed an agreement handing management of the Port of Baltimore's intermodal container transfer facility to Ports America.

After struggling all year with cargo diversion due to labor problems, West Coast ports in November finally turned the corner, registering gains in all categories of container throughput.

APM Terminals in Los Angeles last week wrote the script for handling the new generation of mega-ships with capacities of 18,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units, turning the massive CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin in 56 hours of operations, averaging 29.1 lifts per crane, per hour, and a total 200 container moves against the vessel each hour.

The Port of New York and New Jersey handled a record 286,798 cargo containers of all sizes in November as an increase in import loads offset a dip in loaded exports at the largest U.S. East Coast port.

The CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the largest container ship to call in the United States, docked at Oakland on Friday, six days after stopping at Los Angeles on its first U.S. call.

The time that truckers spend taking delivery of containers inside of marine terminals in Los Angeles is not nearly as long as the drayage industry believes, but there is still room for improvement, the president of PierPass said Tuesday.

Successfully working the two largest container ships ever to call at a North American port in the same week required an extraordinary effort involving container lines, APM Terminals, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, the railroads, chassis providers and three federal government agencies, Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said Monday.

Container volumes at the Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma increased strongly in November compared to the same month last year, which was when work slowdowns by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union began and terminal productivity plummeted in line with their coastwide contract negotiations.

Terminal operations in Los Angeles-Long Beach are back to normal after a year-long bout with congestion, chassis shortages and labor problems but average trucker turn times in the largest U.S. port complex remain stuck at the unacceptable level of about 90 minutes.

Newark Mayor Ras J. Baraka is one step closer to following through on his threat to sell Port of New York-New Jersey land in the city if the container complex doesn’t contribute more cash to the financially struggling city.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are taking a fresh look at short haul-rail of containers to an inland cluster of distribution centers as a way to combat systemic congestion at the largest North American container gateway.

The U.S. West Coast is not yet ready to handle regular calls from 18,000 twenty-foot-equivalent unit vessels despite CMA CGM’s deployment of mega-ship Benjamin Franklin on the trade, according to Drewry.

Port Everglades said it expects to gain about 128,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units over the next 10 years through the renewal of Florida International Terminal's lease and relocation of the facility as the port works to accommodate mega-ships.

U.S. Federal Maritime Chairman Mario Cordero said he's prepared to try to shut down the PierPass program at the Southern California ports via a federal injunction if an agency review of the program finds it to be in violation of the Shipping Act and terminal operators don’t move fast enough to address his concerns.

Drayage companies say truck turn times at PortMiami have lengthened in recent weeks, creating delays for shippers and reducing the number of trips that drivers can make in a day.

Los Angeles and Long Beach have regained much of the market share they lost this past year because of port congestion and labor issues, and they will grow in the years ahead through massive investments in infrastructure and cutting-edge process improvements in cargo-handling, the top executives as both ports said this week.

Congress is set to give U.S. ports and cash-strapped states in need of freight project funding an early Christmas gift via an omnibus appropriations bill expected to be sent to President Obama later this week.

The Port of Charleston’s November volume of full and empty 20-foot-equivalent units rose 6.5 percent year-over-year, reflecting what CEO Jim Newsome said was expected “sustained moderate growth.”

Containerized imports at the Port of Los Angeles rose 7.6 percent in November compared to the same month last year, another indication that West Coast ports have put the labor problems of 2014-15 behind them and are positioned for growth.

Even though container ports potentially have access to large sums of money needed to build the infrastructure to handle today’s mega-ships, port authorities need to better understand the value of their assets and be more judicious in generating revenue for port expansion, according to a public finance executive.

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency has approved an $870,000 grant to help replace 25 older drayage trucks at the Port of Baltimore with cleaner-operating units with engines from the 2011 or later model years.

Imports at the Port of Oakland were up 8.7 percent in November while import volume through the first 11 months of the year was up 0.4 percent compared to last year as imports seem to have recovered from labor strife that impacted its operations even after the end of labor negotiations for the West Coast.

An advisory committee of 13 business, labor and government representatives has been appointed for the Port of Philadelphia.

Laden container imports though the Port of Long Beach rose 4.3 percent year-over-year in November, a rebound from slight traffic declines in the prior two months and a sign that retailers expect holiday sales to be strong enough to require significant restocking.

Though a muted peak season drew down cargo volumes last month, the Port of Virginia remains on track to complete a record-setting 2015, according to officials.

GCT Bayonne plans next month to launch the Port of New York and New Jersey’s first appointment system for trucks at terminals.

PierPass Inc. has been a lightening rod for criticism from cargo interests and truckers in Los Angeles-Long Beach for an alleged lack of transparency in the funding of night and weekend gates, but an initial Federal Maritime Commission review uncovered no glaring problems with the entity that manages the extended-gates program.

Automation is necessary to increase container throughput and truck and rail turn times at U.S. ports, speakers at the JOC Port Performance conference said.

Creation of a centrally managed chassis pool at the Port of New York and New Jersey is awaiting an agreement on labor issues involving International Longshoremen’s Association jurisdiction over maintenance and repair.

The Massachusetts Port Authority has received a $333,185 federal grant to retrofit five rubber-tire gantry cranes at the Port of Boston with new diesel engines that will reduce air pollution.

Container volumes handled by West Coast ports were flat in October as the ports recorded a lackluster month while East Coast ports reported strong gains.

The National Labor Relations Board Thursday affirmed the decision of an NLRB administrative law judge that International Longshore and Warehouse Local 8 in Portland engaged in coercive actions against terminal operator ICTSI during a 10-month period beginning in September 2012.

Roll-on, roll-off carrier Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics has replaced its existing contract with the Port of Baltimore with a 30-year agreement that commits the company to serve the port through 2025.

Heavy volume has been causing long delays for trucks at the only major New York-New Jersey container terminal accessible to ships that are too tall to squeeze under the Bayonne Bridge.

Employers in the Port of New York and New Jersey have hired 935 longshoremen, marine clerks and mechanics in the last 20 months and are working to add more, said John Nardi, president of the New York Shipping Association.

From a near-meltdown at U.S. West Coast ports to a wave of mergers and acquisitions, with hints of more in the container line industry, 2015 has been full of plenty of surprises.

The U.S. Congress is finally moving forward on keeping a better track of port congestion, but how closely they track it, particularly in relation to unionized port negotiations, depends on details to be ironed out over the next two months.

The Port of Virginia’s chassis pool will implement a new system allowing beneficial cargo owners to be billed directly for chassis fees, and taking truckers and ocean carriers out of the middle of the billing process.