North American ports

New calls from container carriers and volumes from the tail end of the 2014 peak season increased Boston’s September throughput by nearly 12 percent.

A New York-based third-party logistics company is opening a Florida office, the third major expansion for the firm in two years.

Longshoremen in Los Angeles and Long Beach worked 20 percent more hours to handle a 1 percent year-over-year increase in container volume in August, illustrating the impact of port congestion on productivity.

Cargo traffic on the St. Lawrence Seaway rose 5 percent year-over-year between late March and late September, largely thanks to strong grain and steel shipments.

The Alabama State Port Authority plans to develop a 300-acre automobile terminal at Mobile to handle import and export vehicles.

Florida’s fastest-growing port saw double-digit volume gains in August, led by a nearly 30 percent increase in exports.

Low ocean carrier rates are to blame for much of the congestion afflicting U.S. container ports, several ocean carriers and terminal operators said at a Federal MaritimeCommission hearing this week.

Federal Maritime Commissioners say they're keeping an open mind on how the FMC should respond to U.S. port congestion issues that the commission is highlighting in a series of regional public hearings.

Development of Philadelphia's Southport Terminal Complex officially kicked off today as the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority released a Request for Expressions of Interest for the 200-acre site.

Terminal operators in Los Angeles-Long Beach should expect in the next few years to receive receive regular calls by vessels with capacities of 18,000 20-foot container units, while East Coast ports sooner than they expect may be served by the new Panamax vessels of up to 14,000-TEU capacity, according to a port planner.

An industry group working to improve operations at the Port of New York and New Jersey appears to be moving closer to an agreement on how to implement a portwide pool of interchangeable “gray” chassis.

Maritime cargo activity at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma supported 48,100 direct, indirect and induced jobs and $4.1 billion in income and re-spending in the region, according to a study released Tuesday by Martin Associates.

Container port congestion has been a hot topic this year, with issues including late ship arrivals; strikes, or fears of strikes, and their impact; terminal projects; and adverse weather conditions popping up across the world. While some congestion is caused by short-term issues, certain world regions may be at greater risk of persistent congestion in the longer term.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Port of Seattle Monday signed an agreement to split the cost of a feasibility study for the deepening of the east and west waterways to 55 feet from the current depths of 34 and 51 feet.

Old Dominion Freight Line is expanding its U.S. intermodal drayage network at ports and inland railheads, strengthening the less-than-truckload carrier's connections with global shippers.

On the back of yet another record-setting volume month at the Port of Savannah, the board of the Georgia Ports Authority is moving forward with measures to help the Savannah deal with the added volumes.

The Port of Antwerp is deepening its collaboration with the Port of Houston to include joint marketing and business development.

A Zim Integrated Shipping Services vessel that was the target of anti-Israel protesters left the Port of Oakland late Saturday without being worked when longshoremen refused to report to their jobs, citing health and safety concerns.

Cleanup efforts continued over the weekend at the Port of Los Angeles to remove wood fragments and timbers that were scattered into the water in the Sept 22 fire at the Pasha breakbulk terminal. The effort is expected to last for weeks.

One of the unintended consequences of the Los Angeles-Long Beach PierPass program, which includes a traffic mitigation fee on containers that move during the day peak-time hours, is that retailers send their trucks to the harbor at night specifically to avoid the fee.

About 40 anti-Israel protesters picketed the vessel Zim Shanghai Saturday morning at the Port of Oakland. The vessel was not worked during the day shift.

Chassis shortages, huge cargo discharges from big ships and a labor force that is stretched to the limit are contributing to a congestion problem that Los Angeles-Long Beach can’t seem to shake. But chassis are the main culprit, executives say.

The East Coast's fastest-growing port could double its capacity in the next 10 years and plans to knock out all U.S. East Coast competition along the way.

Volumes at Port of Miami continued to dwindle in July, newly released numbers show, but port officials are hoping that throughput volumes will be boosted in subsequent months by new customers and improved trade opportunities.

Robert Curry Sr., president and CEO of California Cartage Co., was presented this week with the West Coast Connie award sponsored by the Containerization and Intermodal Institute. The award recognizes individual achievement in international trade and intermodal transportation.

Boosted by larger vessels and a larger customer base, container volumes at the Port of Tacoma took off in August.

Container handling at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach was back to normal by Wednesday’s night shift as the Los Angeles Fire Department declared Tuesday’s fire at the Pasha breakbulk terminal to be completely snuffed out.

The Justice Department’s announcement that it has no plans to challenge a proposed agreement between two major chassis lessors at Los Angeles-Long Beach is a key step forward in eradicating a severe problem with chassis availability that has contributed to terminal congestion at the ports all year.

The Justice Department said it won’t challenge an agreement by two major container pools to share each other’s intermodal chassis in a “gray” pool in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Diesel particulate matter emissions from ships, trucks, trains and other big machines at the Port of Long Beach has declined by 82 percent since 2005, according to an annual analysis of the area’s air quality.

Port executives at West Coast landlord ports say that when it comes to fixing congestion resulting from big ships and carrier alliances, the buck stops with them.

Joseph P. Ruddy has been appointed chief innovation officer at the Port of Virginia, and Shawn Tibbets will succeed him as chief operations officer.

U.S. ports are under increasing pressure to modernize their facilities to handle larger vessels and keep their existing infrastructure up to par. Fortunately, for some ports, Uncle Sam is giving them a boost via Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program.

New Jersey Senate committee has approved a bill to withdraw the state from the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.

BMW Group has opened a vehicle processing and distribution center to support a new five-year agreement that will increase the German automaker’s imports through the Port of Baltimore.

As container ships grow steadily larger due to carriers seeking greater economies of scale, ports find themselves struggling to cope with the burdens, being forced into huge investments for deepening and infrastructure that may or may not pay off, according to a senior Port of Long Beach official.

Ohio’s Port of Cleveland and Dutch breakbulk carrier Spliethoff Group have decided to add a second monthly vessel to the Cleveland-Europe Express, or CEE ― the only container and breakbulk service currently operating between Europe and a Great Lakes port.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has authorized $356 million to develop a long-delayed intermodal rail transfer facility for Global Terminal in Bayonne, New Jersey, and to expand container-on-barge service to Brooklyn.

The Port of Charleston’s strong container traffic in August has furthered its strategy for above-market growth, although the outlook for the rest of the year is not quite so bright.