North American ports

The Port of Baltimore handled record volumes of containers, automobiles and general cargo in 2014, the Maryland Port Administration reported.

Wal-Mart brought wider attention to how West Coast port congestion is hurting shippers, saying on Thursday that shipment delays are hurting its business and threaten its spring and Easter inventory.

The Port of Oakland sharply criticized the International Longshore and Warehouse Union local in Northern California for in effect shutting down the port today in order to hold its regularly scheduled stop-work meeting during the day shift.

Multimodal logistics operator XPO sees opportunities as well as challenges in the West Coast container pileup, as shippers struggle to move freight inland.

The Port of Charleston posted year-over-year increases of 12.6 percent in loaded 20-foot-equivalent units and 18 percent in total TEUs in January, benefiting from what port CEO James Newsome described as “across-the-board” cargo growth.

The largest International Longshoremen’s Association local in Baltimore rejected a tentative local contract that employers and ILA international officials had agreed upon in an effort to settle a 2-year-old labor standoff.

The Port of Portland and its container terminal operator, ICTSI, have a strategy to attract another carrier or carriers when Hanjin Shipping Co. next month leaves the Pacific Northwest port.

Florida needs to amp up its marketing efforts, offer new incentives and cut red tape in order to reclaim containerized imports and exports tied to the state but handled by other states’ ports, according to study released on Wednesday.

Shippers could see truck pricing 'skyrocket' as they scramble to move containers inland once the labor situation at U.S. West Coast ports is resolved, BB&T Capital Markets said.

Port of Oakland executives blame a dramatic container volume decline in January on congestion and the inability of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and waterfront employers to agree upon a new coastwide contract.

Port of New Orleans CEO Gary LaGrange says new services from Chiquita and CMA CGM, prospects for additional services this year, and a strengthening U.S. economy make him confident the port will exceed its 2014 record volume of 490,526 TEUs, including empties, which was up 8.8 percent year-over-year.

Port congestion on the U.S. West Coast is estimated to have caused the diversion of as much as 150,000 TEUs to East Coast ports during 2014, according to Drewry's Container Insight Weekly.

West Coast ports resumed vessel loading and unloading Friday amid continuing labor strife and congestion that has left the tally of backlogged container ships at nearly four dozen and rising.

President Obama’s proposal to restore U.S.-Cuba diplomatic trade relations has kindled interest in increased shipments between the nations, and is raising hopes among Gulf ports and shippers that a new market could develop almost in their front yard.

Texas and Louisiana ports believe they’re still early in what they expect to be an extended boom in exports of chemical products produced in the region with cheap U.S. natural gas.

With less than a week to the Chinese New Year factory shutdowns and congestion delays frustrating trans-Pacific shippers, DHL is ensuring it has enough air cargo space on its U.S. routes to handle the rising demand.

The operator of the Port of Portland terminal that Hanjin Shipping is vacating after repeated labor disruptions said it will seek new business for the terminal but that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union must do its part.

The Port of Virginia last month posted its highest January container volume, handling 191,996 loaded and empty 20-foot-equivalent units, a 15 percent year-over-year increase.

When U.S. West Coast port congestion clears, there are increasing signs that shippers’ frustrations with shipment delays of weeks will spur them to permanently re-route freight through the East Coast, much like they did in 2002 following a 10-day marine terminal lockout.

A weekend call by the Maersk Kotba on the North Europe service of Maersk Line’s 2M operation with Mediterranean Shipping Co. is the first call by the Danish carrier’s ships in New Orleans in three years.

The Port of Virginia has begun posting weekly statistics for truck turn times and container dwell times at its terminals, something drayage operators have been clamoring for at other U.S. ports.

February imports through top U.S. container gateways are expected to rise 10.1 percent year-over-year despite West Coast congestion that has stalled shipments and shifted cargo to the East Coast, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker.

Hanjin Shipping Co. said Wednesday in Asia that it was withdrawing direct service to the Port of Portland, Oregon, after a 2 1/2-year-old dispute with longshoremen that severely undermined productivity.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will launch the next phase of its clean-trucks program in mid-March, and hopes to secure funding to replace more than 1,800 additional older trucks with newer models during the next three years.

The Port of Long Beach Monday celebrated the 10th anniversary of its Green Port Policy, a program that has significantly reduced pollution affecting the air, water, soil, wildlife and neighboring communities.

New Jersey legislators have moved a step closer to passing a bill to dissolve the bistate Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor and transfer its New Jersey operations to the state police.

Loaded imports through the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex fell by a quarter last month compared to the same period a year ago, reflecting the severity of pain congestion has inflicted on the largest container gateway in the Americas.

Longshoremen in Portland refused to work on Monday, making it four days in a row that a Hanjin Shipping Co. vessel has been sitting idle at the Pacific Northwest port’s only container terminal.

As negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and waterfront employers drag on, the impact of U.S. West Coast port congestion is rippling far beyond just U.S. supply chains and hampering shippers from Canada to Japan.

A proposed tax on stored empty containers was stricken from legislation that a New Jersey Assembly committee approved to encourage value-added development around Port Newark-Elizabeth marine terminals.

A cold chain logistics operator has placed a figure on the steadily worsening U.S. West Coast port congestion, warning that delays and diversions are helping to wipe out shipper profit margins.

Dozens of harbor truckers in Southern California notified the Uniform Intermodal Interchange Agreement, as well as a number of shipping lines, that because of the severe port congestion and labor disputes on the West Coast, they will not be held responsible for paying carrier-imposed charges for the late return of equipment.

U.S. West Coast container terminals will suspend operations on vessels this weekend, on both day and night shifts, at all ports, as they seek to dig out of the container backlog that continues to choke their operations. Terminals, however, will maintain gate and yard operations at their discretion.

Expedited business is up 10 percent year-over-year at regional Western trucking company Reddaway, thanks in part to extreme delays at West Coast ports.

Workers on Thursday installed the first of more than 1,000 concrete roadway segments that will provide the Bayonne Bridge with a roadway high enough to accommodate larger ships at container terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Trucks entering Virginia’s Norfolk International Terminals will face new restrictions next month on when they can pull in with export-bound containers, a spokesman for the Virginia Port Authority has confirmed.

West Coast ports always seem to hog the spotlight and much of the glory, but it’s the East Coast ports that are growing faster and gaining market share.

Container ship lines are adding calls at Houston to handle U.S. exports and imports whose regular routings to and from Asia have been disrupted by congestion at U.S. West Coast ports.

A home furnishing company’s decision to build a 1.1 million-square- foot e-commerce warehouse near the port of Savannah, announced on Tuesday, shows both the scarcity of available distribution center space in the area and the need for access to dependable ports as congestion rages on along the U.S. West Coast.

A long-discussed but still unrealized marine terminal on the Georgia-South Carolina border has made some marked headway after an engineering study found there is room on the Savannah River for a second terminal downstream from the busy Port of Savannah.