Port News

Don’t blame ocean carriers and bigger container ships for congestion at key ports; blame insufficient investment in equipment, dredging and automation at U.S. marine terminals, speakers said at the 15th annual TPM Conference in Long Beach.

Matthew Shay, president of the National Retail Federation, on Monday called on Congress and the Obama administration to change how unionized port labor and waterfront employers negotiate agreements so “the interest of thousands” can no longer threaten the livelihood of millions

The U.S. faces many challenging port issues but chief among them is a system of labor-management relations that fails to consider the interests of the ultimate customers, the chairman of Kuehne + Nagel told TPM 2015 in Long Beach on Monday.

PSA International kick-started work on its $350 million expansion of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust after signing a contract related to dredging and reclamation work for a fourth container terminal at India’s largest container gateway.

The three major chassis providers in Southern California finalized an agreement Friday that should guarantee equipment availability and eliminate the costly shuttling of chassis among 11 of the 13 container terminals in the largest U.S. port complex.

The Port of Los Angeles is teaming up with terminal operators and a harbor drayage company to launch a container free-flow operation aimed at reducing congestion at the largest U.S. port while delivering import loads to retailers and other large shippers quickly and efficiently.

A new incentive program for ocean carriers at Philadelphia could bring more than 1 million new containers through the city’s Delaware River terminals over the next five years, according to the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority.

The Port of Busan plans to handle 20 million TEUs this year after posting record volume in 2014, mainly because of healthy transshipment traffic.

APM Terminals confirmed it asked three senior executives to quit their jobs at the Maersk Group’s port operating unit.

Terminal operators are committed to return West Coast ports to normal operations as quickly as possible, but their ability to eliminate the backlogs of containers and vessels that are choking their facilities will be capped by constraints on the availability of dockworkers, harbor truck drivers and chassis.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach can begin working together to address congestion after U.S. Federal Maritime commissioners on Thursday unanimously approved an amendment this week allowing the two largest U.S. container ports to work together.

Container volume at the Port of Los Angeles declined 22.7 percent in January as the largest U.S. port was brought to its knees because of congestion, dockworker slowdowns and restrictions on night and weekend work imposed by employers.

More than 61 percent of the hours worked by International Longshoremen’s Association members employed by New York Shipping Association companies during the most recent ILA-NYSA contract year were paid at overtime rates.

Freight forwarder Expeditors International saw air freight volume soar in the fourth quarter, reaching a 19 percent year-over-year increase in December, as shippers tried to fly over West Coast port gridlock.

The Port of Virginia closed its Hampton Roads terminals Thursday after a winter storm dumped as many as nine inches of snow in some corners of the southeastern corner of the state.

The Nigerian government is poised to open more inland ports to help decongest the country’s overwhelmed terminals in Lagos.

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners appointed industry veterans Michael Christensen and Glenn Farren to newly-created management positions that were established to enhance cargo flow and improve service, as the second-largest U.S. container port recovers from months of congestion.

Retailers continue to feel the hangover of West Coast port gridlock that will persist for weeks despite tentative agreement on a coastwide longshore labor contract.

WASHINGTON — California Rep. Janice Hahn called on the House Budget Committee Wednesday to increase funding for U.S. ports, which will see financing fall millions of dollars short of targets Congress and the White House agreed on last year.

The credit ratings of major West Coast ports will not be significantly impacted in the short to medium term by the cargo-handling disruptions that occurred during the protracted dockworker contract negotiations, but continued labor problems would cast the ports as unreliable, and would likely lead to permanent cargo diversion, Fitch Ratings stated Wednesday.

Rep. Janice Hahn, D-Calif., urged the Federal Maritime Commission to investigate the Pacific Maritime Association’s “unilateral” curtailing of night, weekends and holiday hiring of dockworkers during recent West Coast longshore contract negotiations.

The port of Savannah will add 10 electric-powered rubber-tired gantry cranes this summer, increasing the number of RTGs in the port’s container yard operations to 146. The RTGs continue a pattern of heavy investment that is credited with helping the port sidestep congestion that has plagued other ports.

APM Terminals restated its target of booking a $1 billion net operating profit after tax in 2016 as it emerged as the Maersk Group’s top performing division last year.

Maersk Group made a record net profit of $5.2 billion in 2014, up 38 percent on the 2013 result and driven by a strong performance by Maersk Line, which reported a profit of $2.3 billion.

Trans-Pacific air freight markets will continue to benefit from shipper demand as U.S. ports take several months to clear the backlog of containers that stacked up during the protracted waterfront labor dispute between terminals and the union.

Most West Coast ports were bustling with activity this week as marine terminals order full vessel, yard and gate work crews, and International Longshore and Warehouse Union dispatch halls are filling all of the orders.

Greece’s pledge on Tuesday not to halt ongoing and planned privatizations has paved the way for the sale of the state’s stakes in the ports of Piraeus and Thessaloniki, Athens airport and rail freight companies.

Los Angeles-Long Beach will always be a vital U.S. gateway, but the nine-month labor dispute that helped bring West Coast ports to the brink of being shutdown is making shippers and industry analysts take a hard look at the trans-Pacific supply chain.

After months of bitter negotiations, and with a tentative waterfront contract that is barely three days old, Southern California political, labor and management leaders on Monday said they will focus now on returning the largest U.S. port complex to normal operations.

With a tentative contract in hand, West Coast ports are easing their way back into full production, although the performance of longshoremen Monday was not consistent up and down coast, according to the Pacific Maritime Association.

The Panama Canal Authority is setting its sights on retaining the increase in container volumes from Asia to the U.S. East and Gulf Coast ports it gained in recent months, thanks to shippers diverting cargo from congested West Coast ports.

CMA CGM has opened a logistics complex, between the port and city of Douala, Cameroon, and set up a new firm to handle inland transportation in West African markets.

India’s long-contemplated plan to build a privately operated container transshipment hub at Vizhinjam, near Trivandrum, took a hit after investor groups balked at rebidding for the contract on Friday.

It is almost a year since Manila imposed the daytime truck ban that led to horrific congestion in the Southeast Asian port, but even though the terminals are making ground on the backlog of containers, yard utilisation is still at unhealthy levels.

New Zealand’s Port of Tauranga and logistics management company Kotahi will form a new joint venture to support robust export cargo volume commitments made last year and to strengthen the country’s supply chain.

The grievance machinery in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union contract was back in effect only 24 hours when the area arbitrator in Oakland on Sunday ruled that members of ILWU Local 10 had engaged in an illegal work stoppage.

The U.S. and Canada cleared a big hurdle to building a second span over the Detroit River, a critical crossing and sometime choke-point for cross-border trade.

The tentative coastwide contract agreement that was reached Friday evening by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, while most welcome, is just the beginning of a long process West Coast ports must endure to recover from the backlog of containers and vessels that have overwhelmed their operations the past four months, and to restore their reputation among shippers.

A union representing about 400 harbor truckers serving Port Metro Vancouver is calling on the recently tapped head of the new drayage commission, tasked with setting minimum rates and governing licenses, to step down.