Port News

Imports declined modestly in October at the ports of Long Beach and Oakland as West Coast ports in total lost market share and East Coast ports increased their share of U.S. containerized imports last month.

Stevedores at Brazil’s port of Santos, Latin America’s largest container port, will join striking independent truck drivers demanding the resignation of President Dilma Rousseff.

Rich Higgins, director of global logistics at Rockport Group, recently told the New England Cargo Symposium in Foxboro, Massachusetts what should be asked and considered whenever a shipper evaluates which port to integrate into its supply chain.

Retailers anticipate a jolly November for U.S. ports, with the National Retail Federation predicting that containerized imports will increase 8.3 percent over November 2014. Furthermore, last-minute importers of holiday merchandise should experience little if any port congestion.

Nearly a month after a queue of ships began to mount on either side of the Panama Canal, canal authorities say they are now taking steps to expedite the traffic, decrease transit times and reduce the current backlog of vessels.

Brazil’s second-largest container terminal, Terminal de Conteineres de Paranaguá at the port of Paranagua, will soon be able to handle ships of more than 10,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units as a result of dredging.

Capacity at Ukraine’s Odessa seaport will increase to 400,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units annually by 2017 thanks to the addition of a second phase to the existing container terminal.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, the biggest India port operator, reached an agreement to acquire Kattupalli Port, a minor port complex built by domestic engineering group Larsen & Toubro Ltd.

The port of Felixstowe has officially inaugurated an extended berth that will enable it to simultaneously handle two mega-container vessels of more 18,000 TEUs capacity.

The port of Rotterdam has increased the discount for containers that are transshipped to other European ports and has extended the discount for feeder containers.

Growing competition between shipping lines in Europe and China to develop new logistics hubs in West Africa and serve growing container traffic in the region is expected to bring at least six ports with capacities of 1 million 20-foot-equivalent units or more online over the next decade.

South Korea carrier Hanjin Shipping has offloaded its stake in its Busan terminal operations as it continues with efforts to bolster liquidity.

Rice exporters in Cambodia say high port and container-related costs undermine their competitiveness with neighboring rivals and derail efforts to hit sales and export targets for the strategic rice exporting sector.

APM Terminals’ profit halved in the third quarter due to a sharp decline in imports of containers into oil-producing countries in West Africa, Russia and Brazil.

Old Dominion Freight Line is rebuilding its drayage model around company drivers to better align container hauling with its less-than-truckload business and avoid court battles over worker classification. The less-than-truckload carrier is also focusing more on East Coast ports.

In an abrupt change of events that could lead to labor peace among office clerical workers in Southern California for the next five years, the president of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 63 Office Clerical Unit said Thursday he signed individual contracts with three employers, and he has presented the same provisions to the 12 other employers in Los Angeles-Long Beach that have OCU contracts.

Renewed flare-ups of drayage driver discontent at Port Metro Vancouver have revived concerns that trucker disruption could return to the port despite moves taken to quell unrest.

The contract negotiation process between the International Longshoremen’s Association on the East and Gulf coasts and management is on firm footing and in need of no change, according to Tom Simmers, executive president of United States Maritime Alliance.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India’s biggest container handler, saw its throughput volumes remain relatively flat in the first seven fiscal months, up just 0.3 percent year-over-year, hampered by off-and-on disruptions and slowing global trade, according to the newest port statistics compiled by JOC.com.

Transportation industry consultant Dan Smith for some weeks now has been studying why the Port of Oakland continues to experience unacceptably long truck turn times. His preliminary conclusion is that occasional truck surges are overwhelming terminal gates, and the solution to this problem might be a “robust appointment system.”

India’s biggest port operator, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, whose second-quarter earnings took a hit due to slowing volume growth at its flagship Mundra Port, has a reason to cheer.

West Coast ports in September suffered a drop in container volume as well as import market share, but it is too early to determine if this is the beginning of a trend or just a one-month anomaly for ports that appeared to be recovering from the loss of business earlier in the year.

DP World said its Vallarpadam International Container Transshipment Terminal at India’s Cochin Port is on a steady “growth path” on the back of operational efficiency and connectivity upgrades.

DP World has signed a deal to develop a logistics free zone at Senegal's port of Dakar. The free zone investment will benefit DP World’s container terminal in the port of Dakar and shippers using the nearby Blaise Diagne International Airport.

APM Terminals has invested in a multi-purpose cargo terminal in China, accelerating its expansion beyond its core container handling business.

International Container Terminal Services of the Philippines said revenue from port operations fell 11 percent year-over-year to $239.9 million in the quarter ending Sept. 30, despite volume growth of 1.9 percent to 1.9 million 20-foot-equivalent units.

Hoping to avoid tumultuous negotiation like in 2010 and with shippers' patience already low, International Longshore and Warehouse Union office clerical workers in Los Angeles-Long Beach are expected to begin negotiations with employers in April — less than three months before the current contract expires.

A C$285 million ($217 million) expansion of its intermodal yard will allow the largest container terminal at Port Metro Vancouver to maintain a speedy transfer of cargo between the docks and intermodal trains even when larger vessels discharging more containers begin calling the facility in the next few years.

There’s little hope the port of Itajai, Brazil’s second-largest container port, will receive emergency government dredging help, despite the severe siting that closed the port for days and still causes draft restrictions for container vessels.

China’s nine major listed container terminal operators will be more profitable in 2016 with a majority booking high single or double-digit growth in net profit when compared with 2015, according to a valuation report issued by Citi Asia Pacific.

Container throughput at Iran’s ports should grow by up to 25 percent annually over the next half decade as a confluence of benefits are realized from the expected relaxation of sanctions, a senior Iran-based industry researcher and commentator told JOC.com.

DP World has acquired full control of the DP World Southampton container terminal after agreeing to buy the remaining 49 percent stake held by Associated British Ports.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone increased its net income and revenue in the second fiscal quarter, but it did so at a slower rate than last year as India’s biggest non-government port operator struggled to maintain its growth momentum amid a global shipping slowdown.

The Teamsters union is eying California, a state with drivers clamoring for representation and a regulatory climate sympathetic to work misclassification, as a launching pad for a national drayage organizing push.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance has outlined the goals and strategies that will guide future development of the Seattle-Tacoma gateway in an era that will be dominated by big ships, mega-alliances and fierce competition among ports for a larger piece of the North American container trade.

In the wake of a major deepening project to accommodate post-Panamax megaships, there is intense debate over how successful the Port of Miami will be realizing its goal of becoming a competitive gateway for Asian imports destined for points beyond Florida.

Baltic Stevedore Co. said its new nearly two-acre container yard for empties and an inspection point will speed up customs cargo processing and improve inland distribution at the Baltiysk container cargo terminal.

The port of Rotterdam has established a strategic partnership with the Bank of China focused mainly on Beijing’s “Belt and Road” strategy to boost trade links with Europe.

APM Terminals-operated Gujarat Pipavav Port recorded a 24 percent year-over-year decline in its container volumes during the second fiscal quarter, according to a company statement filed with the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The Oakland Port Authority said Thursday a longshore labor shortage that generated congestion and long truck lines at marine terminals is over and operations are returning to normal.