North American ports

The Port of Virginia is rolling out additional equipment and breaking ground on a new cargo yard in an effort to relieve a now six-week-long container backlog on the waterfront.

Container volumes at West Coast ports plummeted 24 percent in the first two months of the year compared to 2014 due work slowdowns by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, marine terminal congestion and the diversion of cargo to other ports.

There is no more urgent question facing West Coast port directors in the aftermath of the devastating labor standoff than how to restore the trust of beneficial cargo owners. Yet with it being impossible for port directors to guarantee the reliability of the longshore workforce, finding a solution is tricky.

The new terminal is accessible by rail, truck or barge. It sits behind behind Alabama State Port Authority’s Pier D2 berth on a 40-foot-deep channel at the port authority’s main docks complex.

More than five weeks after West Coast longshoremen and waterfront employers reached a tentative contract, the Port of Oakland is still trying to regain the vessel calls it lost.

The Port of Baltimore will combine a $200,000 U.S. Transportation Department grant with $300,000 in state funds to continue a program subsidizing replacement of old drayage trucks with newer, less-polluting vehicles.

Terminal operators in Los Angeles-Long Beach are beginning to reduce the vessel backlog built up during the longshore labor negotiations, raising the possibility that the largest U.S. port complex will be back to normal before mid-to-late May as originally expected.

West Coast ports continue to reduce vessel and container backlogs that built up during the nine months of labor negotiations, with the ports of Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma progressing at a faster pace than Los Angeles-Long Beach.

Heavy volume from larger ships and carrier alliances is straining capacity at New York-New Jersey container terminals just when shippers are seeking alternatives to congested West Coast ports.

Terminal operators and equipment managers on the West Coast intend to form a discussion agreement that will allow them to work with industry stakeholders such as shipping lines, motor carriers and railroads to reduce congestion and improve cargo velocity.

The Port of Houston’s volume of loaded import containers in February jumped 44 percent from a year earlier, boosted by shippers seeking an alternative to congested West Coast ports.

For U.S. West Coast ports, 2015 was going to be a year to solidify market share in the competitive U.S. container trades as ports on the East Coast prepared for completion of the Panama Canal expansion project. Instead, the first quarter of 2015 has been a nightmare for West Coast ports, with crippling congestion, an unsettled labor contract and declining container volumes.

East and Gulf Coast ports have been winning the market share battle in the U.S. containerized ocean trade since 2008. What happened?

The Port of Virginia is shifting three rubber-tire gantry cranes to the newly reopened Portsmouth Marine Terminal to handle overflow from larger terminals, and expected to have two of the yard cranes ready for use today.

Earlier this year before the three major equipment-leasing companies formed a gray chassis pool in Los Angeles-Long Beach, Direct ChassisLink Inc. was positioning 300 chassis into a marine terminal in Long Beach while Flexi-Van Leasing was pulling 280 of them out of the same facility. Thanks to the gray, or neutral chassis pool that went into operation on Mach 1, that type of inefficiency has very quickly become a thing of the past.

APL issued an upbeat customer advisory Wednesday about conditions at Los Angeles-Long Beach, saying that while many ships remain at anchor off the coast, the pace of cargo handling is noticeably picking up.

U.S. shippers’ potential shifting of imports from the West Coast to the East Coast would give the major eastern railroads more business, but how much the railroads will actually benefit depends on how much of the cargo is destined for the Midwest.

Diversions from congested West Coast ports are helping drive traffic growth at the Savannah port, setting the largest U.S. southeast port to end its fiscal year with 14 to 14.5 percent more volume than in the prior year.

Recognizing the impact that port congestion is having on the ability of marine terminals to work container ships, the Long Beach Harbor Commission has extended a cap it had placed on dockage fees charged to shipping lines until June 30.

International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 13 President Bobby Olvera told the Long Beach Harbor Commission that dockworkers are committed to clearing out the worst container backlog to hit the Southern California ports in more than a decade, and wants to see the reputation of the ports restored.

Winter weather that closed the Port of Virginia for four days contributed to a $560,000 operating loss for the port authority during February.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are partnering with cargo interests, terminal operators, harbor truckers and the railroads to hasten the day when marine terminals become transit facilities rather than storage sites for containers.

The Port of Savannah’s volume of loaded containers in February jumped 8.6 percent from a year earlier as the Georgia Ports Authority posted across-the-board cargo increases.

Signs that the container logjam in Southern California is beginning to break are showing up on the truck spot market, as deconsolidated loads come up for grabs at West Coast warehouses.

The daily vessel report Friday from the Marine Exchange of Southern California demonstrates that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are making progress in digging out from the congestion they experienced in recent months, but they still have a long way to go.

Near-unprecedented congestion in Virginia has prompted the state port authority there to reach out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for permission to pay overtime for customs officers working extended operating hours.

The announcement last week by carrier alliances that beginning in late March they will deploy three new all-water services from Asia to the East Coast through the Panama Canal was a dagger to the hearts of West Coast ports besieged by congestion and labor problems.

New York-New Jersey port truckers are growing frustrated with delays accompanying a late-winter cargo spike that container terminals are struggling to handle.

The Port of Virginia is about to enter its second week of near-unprecedented congestion that has now spread to three of its four terminals on the Elizabeth River.

The ports of New York-New Jersey and Savannah have handled the first container ship to call on the U.S. East Coast with capacity of more than 10,000 20-foot-equivalent units.

The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, has renewed his call for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to provide more money for city-owned land the bistate agency uses for seaport and airport facilities.

The Port of Houston has ordered nine rubber-tire gantry cranes for container yard operations at the Bayport terminal. The order will bring to 69 the number of RTGs at the port.

Container volumes in Los Angeles and Long Beach plummeted in February as the ports faced another month of severe congestion and labor problems.

The trek toward full funding of for U.S. ports can look a lot like one step forward and two steps back.

Three carrier alliances are launching Asia-U.S. East Coast services that will increase capacity on the route by 6 percent, according to industry analyst Alphaliner.

Container volume at the Port of Oakland plunged 36.7 percent in February due to terminal congestion, labor issues and cargo diversion, but the problems that caused the loss of cargo are slowly receding.

The Port of Virginia is barging containers between terminals, keeping truck gates open on weekends and taking other steps to ease congestion that has delayed shipments and drayage drivers.

The Port of Charleston handled 125,549 twenty-foot-equivalent units of loaded containers in February, a 17.5 percent year-over-year increase, the South Carolina Ports Authority reported.

Most container terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey will keep truck gates open Tuesday — a longshoremen’s union holiday — as they struggle to clear backlogs caused by high volume and bunched ship arrivals.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s attempt to lure shippers — from Bacardi to Ikea — away from California may not necessarily bring big business to the Sunshine State, but it will bring the national media attention that some say Florida ports need.