North American ports

Construction of intermodal rail facilities and rebuilding of ship berths are the largest items in the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s $175 million capital spending plan for its seaport unit during the coming year.

The Port of Oakland is increasing the height of four ship-to-shore cranes so they will be capable of working the largest container ships now calling at U.S. ports, and even larger vessels in the future.

The Port of Wilmington, North Carolina, is using a newfound infusion of $35 million in annual state funds to expand its container facilities, dredge its harbor, and try to escape the shadow of its larger regional competitors.

It’s a boom time at U.S. Gulf ports for imports of steel and project cargoes. From Florida to Texas, the region’s ports are enjoying a second year of increased import volumes, driven by a strong dollar and U.S. economic growth.

The Oakland International Container Terminal is piloting a program of night and weekend gates to help relieve congestion, a strategy that is expected to go port-wide at the Northern California port in early 2016.

Container volume at the Port of New York and New Jersey posted year-over-year gains in October, driven by increased exports of empty containers.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are completing their final design for the harbor dredging project at the Port of Boston and officials expect construction to begin some time in the 2017 fiscal year, two years later than port officials had said they hoped.

Truckers calling in Los Angeles-Long Beach are experiencing the lowest in-terminal service times since longshore labor issues in the fall of 2014 created the worst port congestion in more than a decade, according to the organization that represents the 13 container terminals in the largest U.S. port complex.

Beneficial cargo owners and truckers continue to challenge fees they incurred for the late pickup or return of containers during the West Coast port congestion problems this past year, but with decidedly mixed results.

In 2004, Gary LaGrange set an ambitious goal: Within a decade, the CEO of the Port of New Orleans wanted the port to handle more than 500,000 20-foot-equivalent container units a year. Despite Hurricane Katrina and the Great Recession, New Orleans met that goal.

Transportation stakeholders received something to celebrate this year as 44 percent of the new $500 million round of the Department of Transportation’s Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program went to projects dedicated to moving freight.

The National Automobile Dealers Association raised its forecast for 2016 U.S. car and light truck sales to 17.7 million units, a record high that will drive automotive freight and logistics demand.

The Port of Mobile is expanding terminal capacity and building an adjacent $36 million intermodal container transfer facility. The projects, set for completion in 2016, will increase its terminal’s 350,000-TEU capacity to 475,000 TEUs.

The Port of Long Beach is considering a creative approach to reducing the amount of time that containers sit idle at marine terminals, a measure that could reduce congestion at the second largest U.S. port by changing how free storage time is calculated.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma recorded modest growth in container volume in October, but it was sufficient to push the ports’ year-to-date performance into positive territory.

U.S. shippers moving goods to and from the Midwest will have a so-called third-coast option to hedge against port congestion on the East and West coasts when an intermodal terminal serving Mobile opens in May, giving the port its first intermodal rail connection in roughly a decade.

A new chassis depot near the Port of New York and New Jersey’s GCT-Bayonne terminal is a step toward improving chassis availability in the East Coast’s largest port, TRAC Intermodal CEO Keith Lovetro said.

Container volume at the Port of Charleston rose just 3.8 percent in October, reflecting the “more modest growth” the South Carolina Ports Authority forecast now that gridlock on the U.S. West Coast has cleared.

Reducing the amount of time that truckers spend waiting in line and being processed at North American marine terminals and off-dock facilities will have a larger impact on improving overall supply-chain efficiency than any other area, according to a study by a Vancouver transportation consultant.

The development of Jasper Ocean Terminal made some headway Monday after the Georgia and South Carolina port authorities agreed to a framework for the long-discussed but still unrealized marine terminal on the states’ shared border.

Container volume at the port of Savannah, Georgia, rose just 3 percent year-over-year in October, a sign that the torrid pace of year-over-year growth seen earlier this year and in the last half of 2014 is now moderating as shippers return to the U.S. West Coast.

Three military helicopters up to 55 feet long were loaded onto an Intermarine general cargo vessel along with 10 ambulances at the Port of Jacksonville, Florida.

Eight months into operation of Southern California's "gray" chassis pool, the bugs are still being worked out.

Port Everglades grew container volume 5 percent year-over-year to 1.06 million 20-foot-equivalent units in fiscal 2015, beating its previous annual record.

The Port of New Orleans handled 537,285 twenty-foot-equivalent units of full and empty containers in the 12 months ended Sept. 30, marking the first time the port has exceeded a half-million-TEU mark during a 12-month period.

What could eventually become the largest logistics complex at a West Coast port took a big step forward Thursday when the Port of Oakland Commission authorized exclusive negotiations between the port and industrial real estate developer CenterPoint Properties to develop a 20-acre site in the harbor.

TACOMA — On-dock rail is a requirement for West Coast ports, which ship about two-thirds of their containerized imports inland via intermodal, but the Port of Tacoma really sees efficient rail operations as a strategic advantage in its competition for market share with Canada and California ports.

The Port of Virginia handled 233,466 twenty-foot-equivalent units of full and empty containers in October, making it the port’s single busiest month ever and the eighth straight with volume above 200,000 TEUs.

Containerized imports in Los Angeles declined 3.3 percent in October compared to October 2014, following a trend that saw West Coast ports losing some market share last month while East Coast ports gained.

Truckers at the Port of New York and New Jersey have begun applying for grants to help finance replacement of up to 80 of the several thousand older trucks that are set to be banned from port terminals in less than 14 months.

Imports declined modestly in October at the ports of Long Beach and Oakland as West Coast ports in total lost market share and East Coast ports increased their share of U.S. containerized imports last month.

Retailers anticipate a jolly November for U.S. ports, with the National Retail Federation predicting that containerized imports will increase 8.3 percent over November 2014. Furthermore, last-minute importers of holiday merchandise should experience little if any port congestion.

The contract negotiation process between the International Longshoremen’s Association on the East and Gulf coasts and management is on firm footing and in need of no change, according to Tom Simmers, executive president of United States Maritime Alliance.

Transportation industry consultant Dan Smith for some weeks now has been studying why the Port of Oakland continues to experience unacceptably long truck turn times. His preliminary conclusion is that occasional truck surges are overwhelming terminal gates, and the solution to this problem might be a “robust appointment system.”

West Coast ports in September suffered a drop in container volume as well as import market share, but it is too early to determine if this is the beginning of a trend or just a one-month anomaly for ports that appeared to be recovering from the loss of business earlier in the year.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance has outlined the goals and strategies that will guide future development of the Seattle-Tacoma gateway in an era that will be dominated by big ships, mega-alliances and fierce competition among ports for a larger piece of the North American container trade.

In the wake of a major deepening project to accommodate post-Panamax megaships, there is intense debate over how successful the Port of Miami will be realizing its goal of becoming a competitive gateway for Asian imports destined for points beyond Florida.

The Oakland Port Authority said Thursday a longshore labor shortage that generated congestion and long truck lines at marine terminals is over and operations are returning to normal.

A double-digit jump in loaded imports at the Port of New York-New Jersey pushed total traffic up 14.3 percent year-over-year to set a September record.