Port News

Cambodia’s Phnomh Penh Autonomous Port (PPAP) has launched a roadshow to lure investors for its Dec. 11 stock market listing aimed at raising funds for expansion to cope with rising trade volumes.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India's busiest container gateway, has revised plans to dredge its access channel to a draught of up to 56 feet and will now settle for 49 feet, citing high costs and a lack of incremental benefits for the decision.

Hutchison Port Holdings Trust said its profit excluding non-recurring items rose 3 percent during the year’s first nine months, despite sluggish U.S. and European container volume that shows no sign of a quick rebound.

Cosco Pacific saw revenues tumble in the third quarter of the year after slower than expected throughput growth at its terminals and what it described as “continuing weakness” in container leasing rates and resale prices hurt its top line.

Leaders of Brazil’s Port of Itajai say government officials are moving to provide emergency funds for dredging needed to clear silt that has closed the nation’s second-largest container port for nearly a week.

The Port of Manzanillo, Mexico’s largest, avoided major damage from Hurricane Patricia as the Category 5 storm apparently proved much less destructive than feared.

The Port of Savannah posted increases of 5.6 percent in full containers, 13.4 percent in full import containers, and 7.3 percent in total 20-foot-equivalent volume during September

Throughput at China’s top eight container ports showed a modest fall in September as the after-effects of the deadly August blasts at Tianjin port continue to weigh on the numbers.

Ocean carriers, having essentially no control over pricing, are intensifying their efforts to uncover cost savings. That’s why improving productivity at the berth, which allows lines to maximize slow-steaming while remaining on schedule, is taking on a higher priority. Among the remaining opportunities is further leveraging of alliances into the inland arena.

Shippers are facing delays at the port of Itajai after local pilots closed the southern Brazilian container gateway because of strong currents from the River Itajai-Açu and massive silting they caused.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s board approved an agreement Thursday that will allow construction to proceed on a ship-to-rail facility adjacent to the semi-automated GCT Bayonne terminal.

Cross-border shipments of auto parts from Mexico are outpacing growth in containerized imports through U.S. ports in a market roiled by West Coast port congestion and diversion to air freight during the first half of this year.

Hong Kong government measures to enhance the use of back-up land at its Kwai Tsing terminals, which it hopes will alleviate congestion and improve cargo handling efficiency and competitiveness of Hong Kong, have drawn a lukewarm response from port operators.

Two days of strike action by towage workers will bring ship movements in Greek ports to a standstill today and tomorrow (Oct. 22-23), Inchcape Shipping Services has warned.

Port operations managers agree that container dwell time is a major contributor to marine terminal congestion, yet ocean carriers continue to allow some of their customers, particularly large retailers, to compound the congestion problem by exceeding cargo storage time limits.

The Port of Charleston’s September volume of full 20-foot-equivalent units rose 10.1 percent year-over-year, reflecting what South Carolina Ports Authority CEO Jim Newsome described as “broad-based strength across all market segments.”

Global terminal operators are eying three private container facilities — even as the Brazilian government trudges through a $2.6 billion plan to sell off existing and new port concessions.

Kattupalli International Container Terminal’s prolonged and difficult push to woo more ship calls received some support last week when Taiwanese carrier Wan Hai Lines made its maiden call at the private, minor facility on India’s east coast.

The contentious debate over whether West Coast employers and dockworkers have the legal authority to perform safety inspections and repairs on chassis at marine terminals will most likely be resolved by a court, and it will be up to the chassis-leasing companies to initiate the legal action, according to freight forwarders and customs brokers.

West Coast ports are perfectly capable of accommodating even greater cargo surges from big ships in the years ahead, but to do so they may have to turn to more exotic measures.

Verbal abuse of harbor truck drivers at marine terminals by some members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union continues to happen despite efforts by the ports and the union to end the practice.

The Georgia Ports Authority plans to invest $152 million in capital improvements at the port of Brunswick, including construction of a new roll-on, roll-off berth, during the next decade.

When the CMA CGM Marco Polo — until 2013 the world’s largest container ship with a capacity of 16,020 twenty-foot-equivalent units — arrived in Colombo in late September, it highlighted the port’s emergence as a growing transshipment hub capable of handling the increasing number of mega-ships that have become the workhorses of the Asia-Europe trade.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is “considering all options” for replacing thousands of older trucks in order to meet a fast-approaching deadline under the port’s clean-air plan, a spokesman said.

Total international containers handled by the Northwest Seaport Alliance increased 3.7 percent in September from the same month last year as the ports of Seattle and Tacoma continue to regain traffic lost earlier in the year due to port congestion and labor disruptions associated with the coastwide longshore contract negotiations.

Adani Ports hopes to replicate the success of its flagship Mundra Port, India’s biggest non-government cargo gateway, at its new container terminal project at Vizhinjam, a deep-water, green-field site that is designed to counter the growing dominance of Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port for Indian transshipment cargo.

Mexico is in the fast lane to become a major automotive manufacturing hub. And while the decision to move to Mexico may seem simple for automobile and auto part makers looking to cut costs and transit times, it doesn’t make managing supply chains any simpler.

APM Terminals is banking on a doubling of Costa Rica’s refrigerated container exports over the next 15 years and improvements in reefer technology to fuel its ambitious investment in the deep-sea Moin container terminal.

Labor issues contributed to West Coast port congestion this past year, but it is the cargo surges from big ships and the “extraordinary randomness” of container discharges and truck visits to marine terminals that will be the longer-lasting problems for ports, according to Long Beach CEO Jon Slangerup.

DP World-operated Chennai Container Terminal last week received a call from the Maersk Serangoon, reportedly the longest container ship ever to call at India’s southeastern gateway.

With a two-phase expansion of its container facilities, Mexico's top automotive gateway says it is taking aim at competitors in the U.S. such as the Port of Houston.

The Mombasa County government is trying to extract more fees from users of the Port of Mombasa at two points in the supply chain, which would further drive up shipping costs in East Africa’s largest container gateway.

The 10 ports on the JOC's list of fastest-growing leading global container ports for 2014 each achieved year-over-year throughput growth of at least 10 percent.

Shippers and ocean carriers using India’s Tuticorin Port, or V.O. Chidamabaranar, may see significant productivity improvements in the coming months, as logistics providers are introducing an automated system for the movement of containers to and from the harbor.

APM Terminals has reached an agreement to buy the remaining 39 percent of Grup Maritm TCB, finalizing the $1 billion acquisition of the Spanish port operator and consolidating its position as the world’s second-largest container terminal operator.

There was no let up for Hong Kong in the month of September as container volumes fell for the 15th consecutive month.

The Port of Baltimore handled a record 86,149 twenty-foot-equivalent units of total container volume in August, continuing a strong run that has produced the highest three-month volume of total containers, full TEUs and full import TEUs in the port’s history.

Total container volume at the Port of Los Angeles declined 5.8 percent in September compared to the same month last year, with imports down 9.4 percent and exports declining 17.5 percent. Although Los Angeles in recent months has been regaining some of the market share it lost to East Coast ports during the 2014-15 West Coast labor dispute, volumes are still down 2.9 percent year-to-date from last year.

The problem of port congestion cannot be solely attributed to mega-ships and should be addressed through better industry collaboration and fundamental change across the supply chain, according to a global consultant in the container industry.

Container traffic at Ukrainian ports is steadily declining, reversing a previous trend of 11 to 13 percent annual growth.