Port News

WASHINGTON D.C. — The U.S. port industry’s celebration earlier this year for pressuring Congress to pass legislation aimed at boosting federal funding on a set schedule for the next decade may be short-lived.

Increasing container dwell times are taking a toll at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, further exacerbating congestion at the busiest U.S. port complex.

The Port of Long Beach in December will open a facility for the storage of empty containers, a move that is expected to help relieve congestion at marine terminals and at the same time free up chassis for use in the harbor.

U.S. shippers dependent on congested ports face a tough year ahead, FTR Associates says. But that doesn't mean 2015 will be easy — or cheap — for anyone shipping freight in the U.S.

With worsening delays at the Port of Hamburg, port leaders are hoping that newly formed alliances will improve on-time arrivals while at the same time seeking ways to improve the flow of containers to and from the hinterland.

West Coast port congestion keeps spot market truck prices on inland routes high, and shippers are rethinking supply chains as cost rise.

The port of Antwerp is at a standstill as dockers stage a 24-hour strike to protest the Belgian government’s austerity program aimed at reducing the country’s soaring national debt.

The Philippine’ cabinet cluster on port congestion directed by cabinet secretary Jose Rene Almendras will gather for a port forum on November 27 in Manila as officials struggle to address the bottlenecks that have troubled the gateway since late February.

Additional details have been released about a plan, reported last week, to create a “gray” chassis pool that will allow free interchange of chassis throughout the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Twelve container ships were anchored outside the congested ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Sunday, matching a two-year high, the ports’ Marine Exchange reported.

Containerized import volume through the Port of Oakland jumped 9.17 percent in October as the port gained at the expense of the congested ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The CEOs of the ports of Seattle and Tacoma have urged President Obama to assign a federal monitor to help settle a West Coast longshoremen’s contract dispute that the port officials said is having a “crippling effect” on commerce.

Another week of the top stories on JOC.com focusing on the crisis-level congestion plaguing U.S. West Coast ports, although one story on Horizon Lines slipped into the Top 10.

U.S. Federal Maritime Commission staff is looking into ocean carriers’ renewed plans to implement West Coast port congestion surcharges, FMC Chairman Mario Cordero said today.

The inability of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association to achieve consensus in the contract negotiations that began more than six months ago was demonstrated once again today with parties disagreeing over the current status of the talks.

Recent case law involving the independent contractor model in trucking indicates that companies must cover all bases in order to convince the courts and government agencies that owner-operator drivers are not direct employees, a Southern California attorney told the Harbor Transportation Club this week.

Construction on the controversial Nicaragua canal linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans will begin on Dec. 22 on the Pacific side, according to the government officials.

Volume gains in Tacoma helped offset another month of year-over-year losses in Seattle, pushing Puget Sound container throughput up in October for the first time in four months.

Truckers are complaining about a tariff change that restricts their ability to collect detention payments for excessive wait times and subjects them to $50 fees for avoidable trouble-window visits at most Port of New York and New Jersey container terminals.

A Teamsters-affiliated group in Southern California on Friday said it halted picketing that began this week at facilities operated byPacer ACartage, Harbor Rail Transport, LACA Express, QTS and WinWin Logistics.

U.S. retailers today expressed their disappointment that coastwide U.S. West Coast port labor talks won’t begin until early December and reiterated their call for President Obama to get involved.

Maher Terminals has ordered eight additional straddle carriers for operation at its terminal in the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Container throughput at Shanghai edged closer to the 30 million TEU mark in October, with the 3.02 million 20-foot containers handled in the month putting the port on course to blow last year’s 33.6 million box record out of the water by the close of business in December.

The freight transportation industry remains bitterly divided over the future of the organization that was established in 2005 by marine terminal operators in Los Angeles-Long Beach to manage the extended gates program at the largest U.S. port complex.

West Coast states would be hit hardest if their ports are shut by a longshore strike or lockout, but the most severe impact would be longer-term, according to maritime economist John C. Martin.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association will not have a contract settlement until December at the earliest because the ILWU is suspending negotiations on coastwide issues until Dec. 2, according to the employers’ organization.

The Port of Oakland is closed today following the death Wednesday night of a longshoreman in Benicia, a breakbulk and bulk port on the San Francisco Bay.

North America has “Third World” ports that charge carriers “very high costs for very low efficiency,” a senior executive of United Arab Shipping Co. says.

In an effort to reduce congestion caused by mega-vessels, the Port of Hamburg has launched an initiative to better coordinate the handling of the vessels — even before they make their way up the estuary of the Elbe river.

Industry officials in the Port of New York and New Jersey have agreed on a plan to create a “gray” chassis pool that would allow truckers to freely interchange chassis throughout the port as soon as early 2015.

The port of Charleston saw double-digit increases in container traffic in October, marking another month of what the head of the South Carolina Ports Authority says is “exceptional” above-average growth.

The Pacific Maritime Association said work slowdowns continued in the northern ports, while the International Longshore and Warehouse Union was not dispatching sufficient skilled labor to handle cargo volumes in Los Angeles-Long Beach.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey approved $2.42 million to continue a four-year-old program to help port truckers replace older, higher-polluting vehicles with newer, cleaner burning ones.

Representatives of global dockworkers’ unions pledged “active solidarity” to the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and questioned the Pacific Maritime Association’s willingness to reach a contract with the U.S. West Coast union.

Major U.S. retailers don't expect U.S. West Coast port congestion to hamper getting Black Friday products on the shelves, but they’re far less confident on their ability to keep stores stocked through the entire holiday season.

The Port of Long Beach today will be the focus of attention by a Teamsters-affiliated group that is attempting to organize drayage drivers in Southern California.

Peel Ports CEO Mark Whitworth says a $480 million container port rising along the river Mersey will provide the port of Liverpool with “a fantastic opportunity to take back its national market share.”

Ports are set to dominate container shipping strategy with the focus on terminal productivity and capacity expansion, industry analysts said at the JOC Group’s Port Performance Conference Europe in London.

Terminal operator Gulftainer is a step closer to readying its Al-Sharjah Emirati terminal for mega-ships after it received $60 million of new crane equipment for the Khorfakkan Container Terminal.