Port News

Senate appropriators last year derailed Congress’ attempt to give U.S. ports the $1.2 billion for maintenance dredging and berth work — as set by the Water Resources Reform Development Act — by coming up $100 million short for fiscal year 2015.

$1.1 billion terminal operator ICTSI sold its stake in a Japanese container terminal on Okinawa to focus on other global port operations.

A deeper channel and additional berths will help South Korea's Busan Port Authority keep up with rising container volumes and bigger box ships.

APM Terminals in Rotterdam officially opened the container terminal of the future on April 24 with the aggressive prediction that Maasvlakte II will improve vessel productivity by 40 percent.

The Port of Oakland confirmed Friday that cargo handling will resume on the evening shift after the port was closed for the day shift for a rescheduled labor meeting. Normal operations along the vessels, in the yards and at the gates are scheduled to start at 7 p.m. Pacific time.

Drivers who walked off their jobs on Monday at three harbor drayage companies in Southern California to protest alleged misclassification and wage theft returned to work Friday, according to a statement by the Teamsters-affiliated Justice for Port Truck Drivers.

Europe's largest inland port to grow as ultra-large container ships arrive at north European ports.

The Port of Philadelphia reported a year-over-year increase of 2.3 percent in its first-quarter volume of full and empty containers.

A recently-awarded navigation project will likely further fuel continued Asia volume gains at the Port of Jacksonville, Florida.

Panama’s cabinet council has approved a request by the Panama Canal Authority to implement volume-based discounts for container ships. The new toll schedule will take effect April 1, 2016.

A fast-growing terminal operator at the port Rio Grande wants to expand its quay so it can handle three vessels each with capacities of 10,000 twenty-foot equivalent units instead of just two that size.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach achieved a post-congestion milestone this week with no container vessels arriving at anchor on Tuesday, and again on Thursday, for brief periods.

Dayside operations at the Port of Oakland will be suspended Friday as longshoremen hold their monthly stop-work meeting to discuss union matters.

The Port of Miami experienced double-digit container volume growth in March. It’s just a hint of what’s to come, port officials say, as the port gears up for the opening of its deeper harbor this summer.

The picketing by independent harbor truckers serving the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach got some attention in Congress after a congresswoman on Wednesday highlighted their efforts and asked whether the federal government could come to their aid.

Gulftainer said it handled 19,561 20-foot-equivalent units of containers in 54.4 hours on a single call at its Khorfakkan Container Terminal in at Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.

But the ports should recoup much of their lost market share next year and beyond if they address their congestion and labor problems, speakers at the Port of Long Beach Pulse of the Ports breakfast said Wednesday.

APM Terminals said all truck drivers entering its facilities from the end of 2016 must remain in their vehicles as part of a companywide project designed to eliminate one of the top five causes of injuries.

The frustration of Hong Kong’s container terminal operators was evident in a local newspaper column by the industry association head urging the government to implement its own recommendations to keep the port competitive or lose out to regional ports.

By most standards, congestion at the largest U.S. port complex is significantly less than it was during the winter, long truck turn times persist.

Picketing by truck drivers seeking union status continued Tuesday at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, indicating that the campaign by the Teamsters union to organize harbor truckers throughout the harbor is not going away anytime soon.

The arbitrator who became a key sticking point in labor negotiations on the U.S. West Coast earlier this year has filed suit against shipping companies and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Cargo interests urge the Federal Maritime Commission to take action against carriers and marine terminals that assess late charges for the pickup and return of equipment when the shipper’s ability to comply with the demurrage and per-diem requirements is compromised because of terminal congestion.

Major ocean shipping companies are warning customers using Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust — India’s biggest container handler — to expect service delays this weekend in response to a 12-hour power outage planned by local authorities May 1 for electrical upgrades in the harbor.

International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 in the Bay area will use its monthly stop-work meeting on Friday to idle the ports of Oakland and San Francisco to protest recent police killings of African-Americans.

The Port of New York and New Jersey’s container volume in March set records for container lifts and 20-foot-equivalent units, aided by the lingering impact of labor disruptions on the U.S. West Coast.

GCT Bayonne plans to introduce such a system this year, and other New York-New Jersey terminals are quietly preparing to follow. The Port of Virginia plans in June to begin testing an appointment system at Norfolk International Terminals and eventually expand it portwide. The NIT appointment system had a short-lived test last year.

Saudi Global Ports has opened its newest container terminal in Dammam’s King Abdul Aziz Port.

A Teamsters-supported organization that is attempting to organize owner-operator truck drivers in Southern California said Monday a number of drivers were picketing the yards at several trucking companies, as well as marine terminals in Los Angeles-Long Beach.

Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, India’s biggest private port infrastructure developer, is poised to snap up another container port contract in the country.

For a region dismissed not so long ago as a bit of a backwater, where inefficiency, corruption and chronic congestion were the norm, east Africa is beginning to show its mettle.

Hutchison Port Holdings Trust recorded a fall in first-quarter net profit of 49 percent, as a one-off gain in March last year and slowing foreign trade hit the performance of its Pearl River Delta terminals.

Cosco Pacific shrugged off concerns of a slowing China as its first-quarter net profit surged almost 20 percent and container volumes grew by 6.6 percent compared to the first three months of last year.

Huge feeder networks required to serve the mega-vessels calling at Singapore and the growing number of connections generated by shipping alliances are placing the port under growing pressure.

The privatization of Kingston Container Terminal should help revive transshipment, but the new operator will face competitive challenges

Encouraged by a ruling late last year that found drivers at a Southern California drayage company were misclassified as independent contractors, a Teamsters-affiliated group is calling for a strike vote on Saturday by drivers throughout the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex.

Hyundai Merchant Marine will become the first carrier to call at the port of Incheon’s new Sun-Kwang terminal when the Hyundai Tokyo ties up in mid-May as part of an Asia-U.S. G6 Alliance service.

External contractors for Hongkong International Terminals have agreed to pay an above-inflation 5.5 percent increase in basic salary for dockworkers in the coming year, averting a threatened strike that would have heaped further misery on the struggling port.