Port News

Regional Container Lines last week became the latest ocean carrier serving India to levy surcharges on Jawaharlal Nehru Port-bound cargo to cover costs that incurred from congestion and delays following the week-long shutdown of APM Terminals facility in the country’s largest container port complex.

U.S. West Coast diversions helped fuel an 8 percent container volume increase at Port Metro Vancouver and allowed Canada’s largest container gateway to retain its Pacific Northwest market share.

The 2M Alliance of Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Co. will add a trans-Pacific call at Prince Rupert, giving the fast-growing British Columbia port its first direct Asian call from non-CKYHE carriers.

The Port of Hamburg handled 6.8 percent fewer containers in the first half of 2015 than a year ago, as sharply lower Russian and Chinese traffic hampered the German port's goal to become the No. 2 container gateway in North Europe.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone on Monday signed a concession agreement to develop the much-publicized Vizhinjam International Container Transshipment Terminal, allowing India’s largest private port developer to begin construction on the green-field project November 1.

Cosco Pacific container throughput registered a meager 1.3 percent growth in July as China’s slowing exports dragged down volumes at the mainland’s second largest port operator.

Port of Virginia shippers have longer to drop off and pick up cargo after the state port authority announced extended gate hours in preparation for peak season this year. It’s a preemptive strike for the U.S. Southeast port that faced “significant challenges” during the summer-fall season in 2014.

Brookfield Infrastructure Consortium, a global asset owner and operator, has purchased Asciano, owner of some of Australia’s largest container terminal and rail freight operations for $12 billion.

Russia plans to double the traffic at its Far East ports by 2020-2022 via port modernizations and targeting trade with Asia to counterbalance the effects of tit-for-tat sanctions between Russia and the West.

CMA CGM is switching its Indian port calls on the CIMEX 2N service, an intra-Asia loop connecting major ports in China and the Indian subcontinent region by switching one of the service’s India calls to Mundra from Pipavav.

The double-digit throughput decline of Hong Kong’s container terminals continued in July, the 13th straight month of falling year-over-year volumes.

Tianjin's main container terminals continue to operate normally in the aftermath of last week’s deadly explosion at the Binhai New Area that killed more than 112 people, but the discovery at the weekend of a huge amount of highly toxic chemicals has the port on edge.

The Pacific Maritime Association sees the medical provisions of the new International Longshore and Warehouse Union contract as a win-win proposition for both parties.

A completely revamped arbitration system in the new longshore contract will significantly reduce the productivity-busting work slowdowns that have plagued West Coast ports since the previous contract in 2008, and will pave the way for terminal automation in the years ahead, according to Pacific Maritime Association President James McKenna.

Having just experienced its busiest July ever, the Virginia International Gateway Saturday closed its gates to truckers because of a power outage. However, vessel and yard activity will continue normally, the port authority announced.

West Coast ports this summer appear to have slowed the bleeding after a year of cargo losses due to contentious longshore contract negotiations, dock worker slowdowns and employer retaliation.

Containerized cargo volumes at the Port of Los Angeles dropped 1.5 percent year-over-year in July, with a 16.4 percent drop in loaded export containers accounting for much of that decline.

It will be roughly two weeks before U.S. ports can truly determine how much impact the explosions at Tianjin, the world’s tenth-busiest port, will have on traffic.

Imports at the Port of Oakland were up for the fifth consecutive month in July, which is good and bad news for the port, which has struggled to find enough hands to meet its growing demand in recent months.

The Port of Houston hopes its smooth handling of thousands of diverted Asian import containers this year will convince shippers to stick with the Texas port instead of returning to more familiar West Coast intermodal routes.

A political battle is brewing in Brazil as stakeholders spar over the future of the country’s Special Ports Ministry, or SEP, in a contest that may determine how future of container trade development.

Container operations at the Port of Tianjin are returning to normal after two explosions rocked the 10th largest global container port and the main gateway serving Beijing.

An Australian federal court Thursday granted a temporary injunction preventing Hutchison Ports Australia from making 97 dockworkers in Brisbane and Sydney redundant, allowing the workers to return to work after they had been locked out earlier this month.

HHLA’s operating profit edged 1.5 percent higher in the first half of the year even as Hamburg’s largest stevedore handled 10 percent fewer containers due to a slump in Russian imports and China’s slowing economic growth.

More ocean carriers have announced emergency surcharges for Jawaharlal Nehru Port-bound cargo to offset extra costs caused by the week-long shutdown of APM Terminals’ Gateway Terminals India.

No decision on a block exemption for Hong Kong’s container shipping industry will be made before the new competition law comes into effect on December 14, leaving the container shipping industry in the bizarre position where its activity will be illegal from that date.

The Port of Long Beach in July had its best month ever, as peak-season cargo began to build and some cargo shifted to Long Beach from other ports.

The average time to complete a trucking transaction at Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex in July fell by four minutes from the prior month, but no one is celebrating.

One of the largest Russian investment holdings is betting that it can lure cargo from Southeast Asia away from Northern European ports through a planned Taman seaport — even after government backing faded.

Port of Virginia CEO John F. Reinhart said high volumes are expected through the summer-fall peak season after July traffic rose 8.8 percent year-over-year.

Operations at two container terminals in the port of Tianjin have been suspended following the massive blast at a dangerous goods warehouse that has reportedly killed more than 40 people and injured hundreds.

APM Terminals posted a sharply lower profit in the second quarter and downgraded its full-year earnings forecast as it trailed global market growth due to lower import volumes at its terminals in oil-dependent Russia and West Africa.

APM Terminals has entered Colombia after joining forces with domestic terminal operator Compas S.A. to manage and operate the latter’s existing multipurpose Cartagena Terminal.

The Maritime Union of Australia has taken legal action in federal court against Hutchison Port Holdings’ decision to terminate 97 members of its 222-strong Australian.

An enormous explosion said to have injured hundreds and been felt 10 kilometers away from the epicenter has been blamed on a container held at a terminal in the Binhai New Area, Tianjin, China, according to Chinese news report.

A niche shipping service between Antwerp and Cleveland is providing other Great Lakes ports with a sprinkling of containerized cargo.

Finnish crane manufacturer Konecranes is joining forces with its bigger U.S. rival Terex Corp. in an all-share merger to create a $10 billion-a-year group that can better respond to stiffer competition from Chinese manufacturers and slowing European and North American demand.

Construction workers building the Panama Canal’s third set of locks have called off a threatened strike after winning a pay increase from the construction consortium at the helm of the project.

APM Terminals’ Gateway Terminals India resumed operations Wednesday morning following the end of a week-long shutdown due to labor troubles, but it will take stakeholders weeks to clear up cargo backlogs and bring ship schedules back on track at the country’s busiest container gateway, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, according to local shipping sources.

Smaller ports in the Philippines are bracing for rising container throughput following the government approval of an act that liberalises the country’s cabotage law and allows foreign carriers to participate in the domestic transport of cargo.