Port News

Russia is developing a plan to certify container weighing scales so exporters can meet the International Maritime Organization’s verified gross mass rule with less than 70 days before it takes effect.

Intermodal logistics giant Container Corporation of India is moving heavily into privately operated Krishnapatnam Port, lured by new mainline service additions and strong volume gains at the minor, alternative cargo gateway on India’s east coast.

The first meeting of the newly formed Hong Kong Maritime & Port Board will take place early next month. Chaired by the secretary for Transport & Housing, the body is an amalgam of the old Maritime Industry Council and the Port Development Council. It is designed to deliver more effective governance and strategy over the development of the territory’s port and maritime sector.

A sharp turnaround in industrial real estate activity around the Savannah port underscores the white-hot demand nationally for logistics properties as well as shippers putting in place long-term plans to use Southeast versus West Coast ports to access the regional market.

Yildirim Holding is mulling investment in U.S. ports as the Turkish transport and industrial conglomerate pursues its bid to become a top 10 global terminal operator.

Eurogate has signed a contract to operate the Limassol Container Terminal, expanding the German port group’s Mediterranean footprint.

A mobile phone app developed by an Oakland trucker to make it easier to exchange empty equipment outside of the harbor can potentially reduce congestion at the port’s marine terminal gates, the designer of the product stated.

The Patrick container terminal at the port of Melbourne in Australia will face a stoppage as part of a three-week-old industrial action campaign by the Maritime Union of Australia as the two parties negotiate contracts.

DP World has signed twin agreements with the Cyprus government to operate a multipurpose terminal at Limassol and provide marine services at the Mediterranean island’s largest port.

Less than 100 days before the container weight rule takes effect, a fight is brewing over whether terminal operators in Brazil should charge for inputting verified gross mass declarations as part of the new SOLAS container weight rule.

BLG Logistics grew its revenue in 2016 with its automobile, container and logistics sectors all posting higher sales, but the Bremen-based transport group posted a marginally lower operating profit.

A simplified, expanded “direct port delivery” scheme at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, introduced with the goal of reducing cargo dwell times in India’s busiest container gateway, has run into trouble after private terminal authorities said they are unable to extend the so-called green channel facility to all approved clients without being compensated for the increased volume.

China’s top container ports booked March throughput growth of 4.2 percent compared with the same month in 2015. The country’s top eight ports handled a combined 12.45 million twenty-foot-equivalent units in March, bringing their throughput into positive territory for the first quarter of 2016, with first-quarter volumes up 0.9 percent on the same period last year to 35.4 million TEUs.

The Port of Charleston says it is in the final stages of tests to see whether the port can provide in-terminal container weighing services for shippers to comply with the new International Maritime Organization container weight rule that goes into effect this July.

The onset of new resin production in the Gulf Coast region will be good news for Gulf Winds International. The Houston-based distribution company expects booming petrochemical plant construction in the region to lead to a surge in containerized exports and transloading.

Nittsu Research Institute and Consulting Inc. expects Japan’s container trade to remain almost flat in fiscal 2016, edging up only 0.1 percent from a year earlier to 11.6 million twenty-foot equivalent units because of economic uncertainty both at home and abroad.

Cargo-handling and vessel operations in Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust have returned to normal levels, as terminal authorities cleared up much of the freight that built up on the back of labor disruptions that caused intermittent gate closings and forced truck drivers to wait in long lines outside access points earlier this week at India’s busiest container gateway.

OAKLAND, California — Agriculture exporter Capital Feed is increasingly capitalizing on intermodal rail access connecting its facility to the Port of Oakland, a transportation advantage that the port plans to press even further via a planned logistics center.

Global Container Terminal on the Jersey City-Bayonne, N.J. border closed mid-morning Thursday and will stay closed throughout the day, after a tractor-trailer struck two people standing alongside a line of trucks, killing a driver and injuring a second man.

Southeast Asia has a high level of potential for the development of ports and container terminals, particularly in the smaller sized segment serving vessels with capacities to 5,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units.

The visionary Global Trade and Logistics Complex that will revolutionize the transfer of cargo between vessels and truck and rail transportation on the West Coast is taking shape in the middle of the Port of Oakland.

DP World will offer container weighing services across its global portfolio when the new International Maritime Organization ruling is enforced from July 1, and is the first terminal operator to make such a widespread commitment.

The business agent-financial secretary for an International Longshoremen’s Association local at the Port of Virginia resigned, and will be removed from other positions, after an audit revealed funds were used for non-union purposes, a top officer said.

Container traffic at the Port of Charleston was up a modest 3.8 percent last month, a fraction of the double-digit jump it saw in February, but still better than the 2 percent slip the port reported in January.

Hot on the heels of a record-setting March for South Carolina’s inland port in Greer, the South Carolina Ports Authority announced Wednesday that it plans to pursue a second inland facility near the North Carolina border.

Rotterdam’s container traffic shrank by 3.9 percent in the first quarter, extending a decline in 2015 that has narrowed Europe’s largest box port’s lead over second-ranked Antwerp, which continues to grow its market share.

West Coast ports have regained the market share of U.S. containerized imports they lost last year during the longshore labor disruptions, but industry analysts say the deployment of bigger ships through the enlarged Panama Canal later this year could swing the balance back to the East Coast.

Importers and exporters using the Port of New York and New Jersey to move containers to and from destinations within 260 miles of the largest East Coast port will save $5, an effort by the New York Shipping Association to fend off competitors from its regional distribution base.

Department of Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said she is committed to working with ports, beneficial cargo owners and transportation providers to improve the global competitiveness of U.S. ports, with the first task being to promote better sharing of transportation data.

Container lines can reserve transits for vessels of up to 14,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units through the Panama Canal, providing carriers with the ability to gain greater economies of scale, which may or may not be passed onto shippers.

Singapore-listed Hutchison Port Holdings Trust reported year-over-year drops in revenue, operating profit and net income of 7 percent, 10 percent and 26 percent for the first quarter of 2016.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma in March registered its third consecutive month of increased containerized exports, although imports declined 36.4 percent compared to an especially busy March 2015, according to statistics published by the alliance on Monday.

Congressional representatives from western states and U.S. agricultural interests are urging the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association to launch early talks to extend their current contract beyond the Jul. 1, 2019, expiration date.

The port of Paranagua, Brazil’s second-largest in tonnage terms and third-largest in container traffic, could soon have another container terminal, although some remain skeptical about the Novo Porto project with a capacity of 1.5 million twenty-foot-equivalent units and cost of 4 billion reais ($1.1 billion).

Logistics providers out of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust are again reporting long truck lines and frequent gate closings at terminals in India’s busiest public container gateway, reminiscent of the gridlock in the second half of last year following labor disruptions that diverted some cargo to nearby private, or minor, ports.

Canada's largest port could run into a "brick wall" limiting maritime expansion in coming years, unless provincial rules restricting land use can modified and some local political ill-will overcome.

LONG BEACH, California — Pacific Maritime Association President Jim McKenna on Friday formally requested that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union join employers in launching early talks to extend the existing West Coast labor contract beyond its July 1, 2019, expiration date.

On the back of roaring chicken exports the rapidly growing Terminal de Conteineres de Paranagua will spend $310 million to boost its capacity 1 million 20-foot equivalent units to 2.5 million TEUs after receiving a concession running through 2048. The investment will also allow the port to handle ships with capacities of up to 12,000 TEUs.

In an unsurprising but welcome move for U.S. ports pursuing major harbor deepening projects, both houses of the U.S. Congress this week pushed forward legislation that would exceed White House and congressional targets for port funding.