Port News

The Indian Ministry of Shipping has set April 15 as the date by which shipping lines should start issuing import delivery orders electronically to the cargo interests, another initiative toward paperless operation at major ports aimed at reducing wait times and costs.

Ports must embrace revolutionary changes in handling containers to meet carriers’ productivity demands for their large vessels, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

Several dozen Baltimore dockworkers have filed a lawsuit challenging their national union’s takeover of their local chapter and dismissal of 500 new members before Wednesday’s referendum on a local contract.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are partnering with cargo interests, terminal operators, harbor truckers and the railroads to hasten the day when marine terminals become transit facilities rather than storage sites for containers.

The Port of Savannah’s volume of loaded containers in February jumped 8.6 percent from a year earlier as the Georgia Ports Authority posted across-the-board cargo increases.

DCT Gdansk has ordered 15 rubber-tire gantry cranes from Konecranes for scheduled deployment at the Polish terminal in the second half of 2016.

Crane operators employed by private rubber-tire gantry contractors at Gateway Terminals India ended a go-slow action and resumed normal activity over the weekend, terminal operator APM Terminals Mumbai said in a trade advisory.

Signs that the container logjam in Southern California is beginning to break are showing up on the truck spot market, as deconsolidated loads come up for grabs at West Coast warehouses.

Brazil’s beleaguered President Dilma Rousseff took time off from her political travails last week to inaugurate the first phase of a $557 million expansion at the port of Rio de Janeiro.

The International Longshoremen’s Association and United States Maritime Alliance said they “strongly oppose” any attempt to place the longshore industry’s collective bargaining under the Railway Labor Act.

The daily vessel report Friday from the Marine Exchange of Southern California demonstrates that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are making progress in digging out from the congestion they experienced in recent months, but they still have a long way to go.

Nike had a strong winter in North America thanks to robust consumer demand, but it would have had an even better one were it not for the West Coast labor standoff.

Near-unprecedented congestion in Virginia has prompted the state port authority there to reach out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for permission to pay overtime for customs officers working extended operating hours.

PSA International is investing 40 million euros ($42.5 million) to boost the annual capacity of its container terminal in Sines, Portugal, to 2.5 million TEUs.

German barge operator Contargo doubled down on its warning that it will impose surcharges because of congestion at the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, saying it would decide whether to levy higher fees next week at the latest.

PSA International is investing 40 million euros [$42.5 million] to boost the annual capacity of its container terminal in Sines, Portugal, to 2.5 million TEUs.

The largest International Longshoremen’s Association local in Baltimore will vote again March 25 on a local contract agreement that union and employer representatives hope will end months of confusion and controversy at the port.

Malaysia plans to invest millions of dollars into the transportation infrastructure supporting Port Klang in an effort to boost exports out of the country’s main maritime gateway.

The announcement last week by carrier alliances that beginning in late March they will deploy three new all-water services from Asia to the East Coast through the Panama Canal was a dagger to the hearts of West Coast ports besieged by congestion and labor problems.

New York-New Jersey port truckers are growing frustrated with delays accompanying a late-winter cargo spike that container terminals are struggling to handle.

Dubai’s DP World booked an 11.8 percent increase in 2014 profit as it benefited from its focus on container terminals in fast-growing emerging markets.

Lost-time injury incidents at West Coast ports in 2014 declined by almost half compared to the peak year of 2002, according to the annual safety report published by the Pacific Maritime Association.

The formidable challenges facing Hong Kong port were perfectly captured in the above illustration that was presented with OOCL’s 2014 financial results recently. Few, if any, ports around the world have had to cope with such a thorough change in cargo mix over a relatively short period.

A March 13 U.S. District Court decision in Portland that ordered the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to pay $60,000 to the National Labor Relations Board for engaging in illegal work slowdowns at the Port of Portland has not resulted in improved productivity at the Oregon port.

The Port of Virginia is about to enter its second week of near-unprecedented congestion that has now spread to three of its four terminals on the Elizabeth River.

Putting waterfront labor under the Railway Labor Act will be a heavy legislative lift with a divided Congress and a union-friendly White House. And, it’s unclear if such a move would prevent “economic warfare” — whether from union slowdowns and the withholding of labor, or employers’ refusal to hire workers.

The ports of New York-New Jersey and Savannah have handled the first container ship to call on the U.S. East Coast with capacity of more than 10,000 20-foot-equivalent units.

The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, has renewed his call for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to provide more money for city-owned land the bistate agency uses for seaport and airport facilities.

APM Terminals is considering investments in non-container sectors, including oil and coal, starting this year, according to the head of Maersk Group’s port unit.

Publicly owned major ports in India reported healthy levels of container throughput growth during April 2014 to February 2015, the first 11 months of fiscal year 2014-15, compared to the volumes in the previous year, according to the latest provisional figures compiled by JOC.com.

The Port of Houston has ordered nine rubber-tire gantry cranes for container yard operations at the Bayport terminal. The order will bring to 69 the number of RTGs at the port.

Container volumes in Los Angeles and Long Beach plummeted in February as the ports faced another month of severe congestion and labor problems.

The trek toward full funding of for U.S. ports can look a lot like one step forward and two steps back.

Environmentalists and human rights activists warn that Nicaragua’s granting of a 100-year concession to a Hong Kong construction firm with unclear financial backing sets in motion a nightmarish scenario fraught with violence, depletion of the region’s largest source of freshwater and destruction of biodiversity.

Three carrier alliances are launching Asia-U.S. East Coast services that will increase capacity on the route by 6 percent, according to industry analyst Alphaliner.

Container volume at the Port of Oakland plunged 36.7 percent in February due to terminal congestion, labor issues and cargo diversion, but the problems that caused the loss of cargo are slowly receding.

The tentative West Coast waterfront contract that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union will vote on next month includes plenty of perks for the union and could revolutionize how day-to-day disputes on the waterfront are adjudicated.

The Port of Virginia is barging containers between terminals, keeping truck gates open on weekends and taking other steps to ease congestion that has delayed shipments and drayage drivers.

The Port of Charleston handled 125,549 twenty-foot-equivalent units of loaded containers in February, a 17.5 percent year-over-year increase, the South Carolina Ports Authority reported.