North American ports

The Port of Seattle Commission has selected manufacturing and transportation veteran Ted J. Fick as its next CEO.

U.S. grain shippers are welcoming the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s collective bargaining agreement with Pacific Northwest grain handlers, but they are still concerned about poor rail service that is hampering their ability to get exports to Asia.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office is investigating a $25 million settlement by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey with American Stevedoring Inc., the Bergen Record newspaper reported.

The agreement reached late Tuesday pertaining to health care was the latest and clearest indication that the 2014 West Coast longshore labor negotiations are playing out in a way no one expected: They are peaceful.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association released a joint statement on Tuesday saying they have come together on at least one topic, and a highly contentious one at that: health benefits.

The Alabama State Port Authority has paid $25 million to acquire a 35-acre dockside tract for future expansion of Mobile’s container terminal and a 63-acre industrial site a half-mile from the harbor.

Now that the Port of Portland has taken away the jurisdiction of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union over the handling of refrigerated containers, the port authority is warning the leadership of the powerful union that a further loss of work opportunities could follow if productivity does not improve.

The 6.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Napa Valley north of San Francisco early Aug. 24 caused no discernible damage to the Port of Oakland, a port spokeswoman said.

The Virginia Port Authority today said it’s on its way to profitability after kicking off its new fiscal year with a “solid start,” following a loss in the previous fiscal year.

South Carolina Ports Authority said its fiscal year 2014 results surpassed original plans, and now fiscal year 2015 is off to a good start too.

The Port of New Orleans is revamping its Mississippi River Intermodal Terminal to the tune of $21 million after a bid was awarded to a Louisiana-based construction company.

Container volume is increasing at North Carolina’s Port of Wilmington thanks to carriers’ service expansions.

The ports of Tacoma and Seattle each reported July container volume totals this week, and while Tacoma saw continued growth in cargo, Seattle’s traffic spiraled downward with drastic year-over-year volume drops.

The Port of Virginia's operating loss expanded to more than $17 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission is moving forward in a fledgling effort to reduce long truck wait times at some ports in the U.S. by holding a forum in Southern California next month and another in Baltimore in the fall.

Container volumes in Los Angeles-Long Beach were flat in July as uncertainty about the International Longshore and Warehouse Union contract negotiations resulted in cargo diversion to East Coast ports.

The Georgia Ports Authority reached an all-time high in container trade in July, surpassing even pre-recession levels.

Work is starting on implementation of an industry task force’s recommendations on ways to improve performance at the Port of New York and New Jersey.

One of container shipping’s most glaring inefficiencies is the countless unproductive trips by truckers who deliver an import box to an inland destination but return to port with no backhaul. Rick Knapp thinks he has a solution.

Though negotiations between longshoremen and port employers on the U.S. West Coast have been uncharacteristically tame, the effects of the labor dispute on supply chains are beginning to become apparent, according to Fitch Ratings.

U.S. container imports could hit an all-time record in August, as July data shows container numbers soared year-over-year, according to the National Retail Federation.

Sunny weather and the beginning of the busy shipping season aren’t the only reasons the Port of Boston is excited about the month of August.

A weekly container-on-barge service between the California ports of Stockton and Oakland will end Sept. 1, dealing a blow the creation of a U.S. marine highway network by ending one of the three inland waterway container services.

West Coast container volumes are up noticeably compared to last year.

With the pending expansion to the Port of Savannah of a U.S. Department of Agriculture pilot program, three southern U.S. ports will be able to receive South American blueberries and grapes.

Port Everglades officials say they expect the port’s container volume to increase by as much as 47,500 20-foot-equivalent-unit containers annually following the recent transfer of two of King Ocean’s eastern Caribbean services from PortMiami.

A $668.5 million tunnel that allows drayage trucks to bypass congested downtown streets opened with minimal fanfare yesterday at PortMiami.

The first half of 2014 saw the start of several stories that JOC.com will most likely be covering for the next year and perhaps beyond.

Operations at the APL terminal at the Port of Los Angeles were back to normal this afternoon after several weeks of congestion that frayed the nerves of harbor truckers and tarnished the reputation of a terminal that had been considered a model of efficiency in the industry.

A group of pro-Palestinian activists will not be gathering en masse at Port of Oakland’s Berth 57 on Aug. 2 to protest the arrival of ships belonging to the Israel-based carrier Zim Integrated Shipping Services, the group announced on its Facebook page.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said port terminals handled record container lifts during the first half of 2014 despite winter storms that produced severe congestion during the year’s first weeks.

Terminal operator and stevedore Ports America, with services in every major U.S. port, is expanding its footprint on the U.S. West Coast.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are aggressively expanding their cargo-handling capacity through multibillion-dollar capital programs, while at the same time being careful not to build excess capacity that will drive terminal operators’ rates lower.

A U.S. House Republican has asked Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to review whether the granting of a 35-year container terminal concession at Florida’s Port Canaveral to United Arab Emirates-based port operator Gulftainer will impact national security.

In Gene Seroka’s first meeting with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti after being named executive director of the Port of Los Angeles last month, the mayor told Seroka what is expected of him: “Maintain and grow the nation’s number one port.”

A long-awaited tunnel linking Miami’s port to the interstate highway system will be open for business at the beginning of next week, after months of delays.

Dredging has begun on the first of two projects to deepen the Port of Houston’s container terminal channels from 40 to 45 feet, matching the depth of the Houston Ship Channel.

An activist group announced plans to block cargo moving off Israel-based Zim ships at Oakland on Aug. 2 to protest the conflict in Gaza.

The Port of Savannah broke the three-million-TEU mark for the first time in its recently ended fiscal year, a new record for the port.