Port News

Truck turn times in Los Angeles-Long Beach unexpectedly showed dramatic improvement in March, due to the seasonal drop in cargo volume that followed the Chinese New Year in Asia, but also because terminal operators in the largest U.S. port complex are working harder than ever to improve their gate operations.

The Port of Los Angeles reported the busiest first quarter in its history, raising the possibility that containerized imports, but more so exports, could be stronger this year than economists have been projecting.

The Patrick Port Botany Sydney terminal is closed as members of the Maritime Union of Australia participate in a 48-hour strike, with more work actions planned at the Brisbane container terminal next week.

India’s Ministry of Shipping has drawn up an ambitious list of nearly 140 public-private-partnership contracts involving a total investment of about Rs. 83,000 crore (approximately $13 billion) for awarding at a three-day investor conference scheduled to begin April 14 in Mumbai.

DP World Southampton will fit container-weighing equipment to its entire straddle carrier fleet to support the weighing service that the terminal will offer shippers from July 1, when the new SOLAS regulation will be enforced.

The Port of Oakland has joined its Southern California peers and other U.S. ports in refusing to offer container weighing services for shippers, making it their responsibility to find other means to ensure compliance with the SOLAS container weight verification rule that takes effect on Jul. 1, 2016.

Drayage and inland infrastructure bottlenecks that have long been a drag on growth at state-owned Chennai Port continue to drive up demand for alternative port options on India’s east coast.

India’s ports sector continued its financial recovery in fiscal 2015-16 after its 12 major state-owned ports, known as major ports, booked an increase in operating profit of 19 percent.

Port Tampa Bay hopes its new post-Panamax cranes will help propel its fast-growing, but low volume container business by attracting new services and encourage the two carriers that call the Florida port to deploy larger vessels and bring more volume.

Import cargo volume at the largest U.S. container gateways has begun its seasonal rise, but is expected to be largely flat compared with last year’s record high numbers, the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates said in their monthly Port Tracker report.

International Longshoremen’s Association leader Dennis Daggett said the ILA isn’t to blame for delays in launching a universal port chassis pool at the Port of New York and New Jersey, and that intermodal equipment providers don’t seem committed to the idea.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma on Thursday approved a berth realignment project at the Husky Terminal that will allow the facility to work two mega-ships simultaneously.

African countries face the daunting challenge of securing continuous investment and project finance solutions to bring port infrastructure and supply chain networks up to par with those of the rest of the world.

The Port of Oakland in March recorded its third-straight month of increased exports, lifting port executives’ hopes that a drop in the value of the dollar will lead to growing exports this year.

Container Terminal St. Petersburg, one of three container terminals at the Big St. Petersburg seaport, has gained market share by reducing its pricing and offering cheaper customs inspections.

Longshoremen working for terminal operator Patrick at the Australian port of Fremantle have been on strike since Wednesday with another action planned for Sydney’s Autostrad Terminal April 13 to increase pressure on Patrick to reach an agreement on employment terms and conditions.

The Greek government today officially sold the country’s largest port, Piraeus, to China’s Cosco Group, prompting striking dockers to stage a protest march through downtown Athens.

The Port of Long Beach is studying land use to plan development of the marine terminal capacity needed to handle growing cargo volumes and larger vessels while remaining committed to environmental stewardship and community partnership.

A long-delayed plan for longshore “relief gangs” to replace the Port of New York and New Jersey’s open-ended work shifts is expected to be launched in late 2016 or early 2017, New York Shipping Association President John Nardi said.

A proposed universal chassis pool at the Port of New York and New Jersey is dead in the water, but chassis lessors haven’t given up on the idea, an executive at one of the leasing companies told truckers Thursday.

Senior maritime and transport officials in Ghana identified piracy and corruption as central challenges in the development of an efficient port and supply chain network in West Africa.

Singapore-based carrier Continental Shipping Line has introduced a direct container service between Chennai, India, and Yangon, Myanmar, to capture expected trade growth on the route.

The volume of containers handled by Adani Hazira Container Terminal, a privately-operated alternative gateway on India’s west coast, nearly doubled in fiscal year 2015-16, which ended March 31, driven by new service additions.

Federal investment is expected to fall nearly $130 billion short of the investment in land- and waterside infrastructure ports will make over the next five years, according to a survey of members of the top port lobby in the nation.

Brazil’s passionate Ports Minister Helder Barbalho announced that the recently delayed second tranche of port privatizations valued at more than 2.8 billion reais ($763.3 million) would go forward on June 5 at the Sao Paulo bourse.

A 3.5-magnitude earthquake Wednesday near the Port of Hueneme, California, caused no apparent damage, and cargo handling was proceeding normally, according to spokesperson Will Berg.

The Federal Maritime Commission has scheduled a two-day summit in May to bring together members of the logistics community to develop commercial solutions to port congestion.

The already bleak situation facing the container terminals at Brazil’s port of Santos has become even more dire.

Milaha, the company formally known as Qatar Navigation, has put in a bid to manage the New Hamad Port in Qatar, the first phase of which is due to come online at the end of this year.

The Port of Oakland is using two smartphone applications to improve trucker turn times and address the long visit times at marine terminals that are the bane of harbor trucking companies at many U.S. ports.

German container terminal group Eurogate warned of growing headwinds in the container handling market due to reduced global traffic growth and the forthcoming reshuffle among liner shipping alliances, after it reported increased earnings in 2015.

India’s major ports controlled by the union government recorded a 3 percent year-over-year increase in container throughput in fiscal year 2015-16, which ended March 31, according to the newest provisional port statistics collected by JOC.com.

Intermodal equipment providers are in the early stages of using GPS technology to track their chassis in seaport and inland locations, and if the return on investment is adequate, IEPs anticipate greater use of the technology.

APM Terminals-operated Gateway Terminals India resumed normal vessel operations Tuesday morning after outsourced workers handling rubber-tire gantry crane operations ended a four-day strike that shut down export gates at the terminal and slowed down cargo handling at India's busiest public port complex, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

Ocean containers are piling up at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, threatening to impact normal operations at India’s biggest public port complex, as a stoppage by unionized workers handling rubber-tire gantry crane operations entered its fourth day on Monday.

Labor problems associated with rubber-tire gantry crane operations that had been a key contributor to congestion and bottlenecks at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust last year have resurfaced, hours after JOC.com reported that stable industrial relations are imperative if India’s biggest public container handler intends to cope with the challenges ahead in this era of ever-larger mega ship calls and fierce competition from nearby private ports.

Terminal operators in Los Angeles-Long Beach do not have the infrastructure that would allow them to weigh containers before they are loaded onto ships, so shippers will have to make other arrangements for obtaining the required verified gross mass of the containers before a July 1 international deadline takes effect, the terminals stated late Friday through a spokesperson.

U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports have been winning the market share battle in overall U.S. containerized ocean trade since 2008, and in 2015 they overcame West Coast ports in containerized imports, too.

U.S. West Coast ports in February handled 33.7 percent more laden containers than they did last February, demonstrating a solid recovery from the dark period in early 2015 when labor problems created the worst port congestion in more than a decade.

DP World-operated Nhava Sheva (India) Gateway Terminals at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust on Friday hosted the MSC Cristina, reportedly the largest container ship ever to call Indian shores.