Port News

Less than a month before it takes effect, the Port Metro Vancouver drayage program faces major headwinds with truck drivers threatening to strike if changes to pay aren’t made.

The U.S. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service said today it’s reaching out to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to see whether it can help in labor talks with U.S. West Coast port employers, and if so, when it could aid.

Truck congestion caused by the deteriorating quality of road networks around the Nhava Sheva port complex, India's largest container gateway, is creating a nightmare for shippers already dealing with months-long rail delays and ocean carrier surcharges at India’s largest container gateway, also known as Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

The Nigerian Shippers Council hopes its new regulatory powers will help bring Nigerian ports up to global standards by ensuring concessions are awarded fairly.

Confirming that eight months into negotiations progress has come to a standstill in West Coast longshore talks, employers on Monday requested federal mediators to enter the negotiations.

An inland port launched by the South Carolina Ports Authority roughly a year ago has exceeded its expectations, reflecting shippers’ interest in reducing trucking costs and securing capacity via intermodal rail.

The Port of Oakland will open a gate on Sunday and begin sending operational status updates to harbor truckers in order to reduce truck congestion.

The port of Rotterdam and Europe Container Terminals, its biggest container handler, have buried the hatchet over a bitter three year dispute over the award of terminal concessions in Europe’s top box hub.

Wilhelmshaven hailed its success in landing a third 2M service as a sign of ocean carriers’ growing interest in Germany’s only deep water port that is virtually empty more than two years after opening.

The first phase of an upgrade to Papua New Guinea’s Lae Port has been completed, paving the way for a boost in cargo throughput at the country’s most important gateway.

As labor negotiations between the Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union heated up this week, JOC readers clamored for information on the topic.

Two former high-ranking International Longshoremen’s Association officials and a Genovese mobster pleaded guilty to a racketeering conspiracy that included a three-decade scheme to extort dockworkers for “Christmas tribute” payoffs.

Contract negotiations continued Friday between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association. As has been the case since the negotiations began in May, neither side revealed any content from the talks.

Strong monthly volume growth at the Port of Tacoma came to an abrupt halt in November, when the port, plagued by labor productivity issues, saw international container volumes plummet 14.1 percent year-over-year, new port statistics show.

APM Terminals will start construction of a new container terminal in Costa Rica next eyar after scaling the final hurdle facing the long-delayed $1 billion project.

Indonesia’s largest port operator Pelabuhan Indonesia II (IPC) will partner with PSA International, Japanese investment company Mitsui & Co. and NYK Line to construct and operate a container terminal at Jakarta’s Tanjung Priok port.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association returned today to direct contract negotiations but didn’t release any report from the meeting.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is engaged in a high-stakes game of work stoppages and slowdowns at the Port of Portland that is moving slowly but steadily toward a conclusion.

Capacity at a container terminal at Viskhapatnam Port, a major state-owned cargo hub on India’s southeastern coast, is set to double to 1 million TEUs annually after a consortium signed a Rs. 633.11 crore (US $102 million) construction contract.

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission has rejected Maher Terminals’ claim that Port Authority of New York and New Jersey acted illegally in granting a more favorable lease to adjacent APM Terminals.

Holiday shoppers in Asia will have to deal with a little less Christmas cheer this year, as trans-Pacific shipments of Christmas trees from the U.S. Pacific Northwest are the latest casualty of West Coast port congestion.

DP World’s shareholders today backed the Dubai-based global terminal operator’s plan to delist its shares on the London stock exchange on the basis that they are too thinly traded there.

China Merchants (Holdings) International (CMHI) reported double-digit growth in throughput from January through November, continuing the strong increase in international trade that also drove up volumes at rival port operator Cosco Pacific.

Manila’s efforts to clear the backlog of containers congesting the port are being threatened by the Christmas and New Year holidays that the Philippine Ports Authority fears could bring the yard utilisation back to congestion levels.

FedEx was forced to turn away freight because of slowdowns at West Coast ports, a reminder of how port congestion is hurting the bottom lines of not just shippers but also the inland transportation providers they depend on.

A U.S. District Court in Oregon ruled that the International Longshore and Warehouse in 2012-13 engaged in unlawful work slowdowns and stoppages at Terminal 6 at the Port of Portland.

Terminal congestion and alleged job actions by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union pulled down Los Angeles-Long Beach container volume by 1 percent on a year-over-year basis in November, according to statistics released by the ports.

Container volume through the Port of Charleston last month rose 8 percent from November 2013 as the South Carolina Port Authority recorded across-the-board increases in cargo volume.

Negotiators for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association will resume direct negotiations on Thursday, even as they disagree over the current state of the contract talks.

Container volume handled by the Alabama State Port Authority rose 10 percent year-over-year in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, helping the authority post record revenue for its fiscal year ended Sept. 30.

DP World’s Indian facility, Mundra International Container Terminal, said it broke the one-million-TEU mark for the first time in its fiscal year that ends Dec. 30.

APM Terminals said one its nw Rotterdam terminals will be the first in the world to have a zero-emission footprint, thanks to a two-year contract to buy wind-generated electricity.

The largest container ship handled by an Indian port was the 14,000 TEU capacity vessel MSC Valeria at Mundra in 2013, a record that has little chance of being broken any time soon.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union today recessed the caucus that it opened on Monday as the union awaited a response from the Pacific Maritime Association on its latest contract proposal.

Container terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey will close on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but will be open for regular hours on Friday, Dec. 26.

The installation of new gates at a Panama Canal expansion site will bring the project to 84 percent of completion ahead of an estimated early 2016 opening date, the canal authority says.

Indonesia’s marine-highway program — a bold $55.4 billion plan to develop 24 commercial seaports, over a thousand non-commercial seaports and procure vessels — is facing a revision as some ports in the proposal may not be suitable for handling containers.

U.S. intermodal trains on average are moving faster, but they still have a ways to go before delivering the level of service shippers had come to expect before last winter.

Malaysia’s port of Tanjung Pelepas (PTP) passed the 8 million 20-foot container mark at the beginning of December, although with less than a month left and volumes slowing down, the 2014 throughput target of 9 million TEUs looks well out of reach.