Port News

A record-breaking year for Port Everglades is only the beginning, port director Steve Cernak said, as the East Coast's second-fastest growing port is embarking on several projects to add capacity and service bigger ships.

A whopping 97 percent of shippers surveyed by JOC.com say they have been hurt by congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and most expect the pain to only deepen.

The Port of Dublin took its first steps toward doubling capacity, as environmental and planning studies began on a $250 million redevelopment project.

The four companies that control about 95 percent of the chassis at Los Angeles-Long Beach agreed on Thursday to develop a neutral, or gray chassis pool for the largest port complex in the Americas, with the phased rollout to begin on Feb. 1, 2015.

Celadon Trucking put more drivers on U.S. highways in the last quarter, and those truckers brought back more revenue and profits for the carrier.

One of the largest U.S. shipper groups is throwing its weight behind an effort to convince PierPass to temporarily waive millions in fees to ease the pain of congestion at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex.

The Port of Jacksonville’s first dedicated Asian container terminal opened in 2009 — just as U.S. consumer demand plunged because of the global recession. Now the promised Asian container traffic boom is starting to become a reality with volume up 20 percent year-over-year in the port’s fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

Despite nine months that included historic congestion, rumblings of diversions and the lack of a West Coast port contract, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach nabbed a bigger piece of the West Coast volume pie through the first three quarters of 2014.

Booming refrigerated shipments have given a boost to containerized operations at Brazil’s Port of Pecem, which is operated by APM Terminals.

Port congestion has gotten so bad in Los Angeles-Long Beach that harbor truckers are imposing congestion surcharges of $50 to as much as $100 an hour, and retailers and other beneficial cargo owners are paying the extra charges if the alternative is that they will not get their containers that day.

Congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach could result in the realization of a long-time goal at the Port of Oakland: becoming the first U.S. West Coast call for inbound cargo from Asia.

Adding to other recent evidence that congestion at Los Angeles-Long Beach is worsening, Hapag-Lloyd Wednesday announced delays to multiple services and said the overall situation “has reached a critical point.”

Russia, struggling after it enforced food embargoes on European Union countries, is ramping up its chicken imports from Brazil, registering a massive 291 percent year-over-year increase in imports of the white meat in September.

The Hong Kong government is facing mounting pressure from container terminal operators and shippers as the port struggles to cope with congestion that remains at critical levels and is delaying ships and disrupting schedules.

JOC Senior Trucking Editor William Cassidy describes the current congestion crisis at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and its impact on inland distribution in this video from the JOC Inland Distribution Conference.

U.S. retailers are pressuring PierPass to temporarily waive at least $9 million in fees to give shippers some relief from severe congestion at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex.

Construction on a new seaport in the Indian Ocean town of Bagamoyo, Tanzania will begin in 2015, Tanzania announced Tuesday.

Flames raged aboard two container ships, one from UASC, another from Hamburg Sud on Monday after the ships collided at Port Klang near Kuala Lumpur.

The International Transport Workers' Federation condemned actions taken against striking Costa Rican dockworkers today, including the use of non-union substitute labor, saying it will join the fight against APM Terminals after a strike at the Limon and Moin terminals turned violent.

Congestion continues to plague Los Angeles-Long Beach despite efforts by terminal operators to remain open longer and use all longshore labor at their disposal.

DP World boosted third quarter container volume by nine percent from a year ago as it opened new terminals at London Gateway and in Brazil.

Cosco Pacific terminals handled almost 9 percent more containers in the third quarter compared to the same period last year, pushing net profit for the period up by 8 percent to $90 million.

The mainland taxman hit Hutchison Port Holdings Trust with a 131 percent tax increase in the third quarter, eroding the strong performance of terminals in Yantian and Hong Kong and pulling revenue for the period down by 9 percent.

Eleven container ships were anchored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Sunday, the most waiting at one time in San Pedro Bay in two years, as gridlock persisted at the largest container gateway in the Americas.

North Carolina grain exporter C.A. Perry & Son has become the first shipper to use Quick180’s new "Plus" service to guarantee export loads to truckers dropping empty import boxes at the company's plants.

Malaysia’s biggest state pension fund is reportedly preparing a $2 billion bid for a stake in Associated British Ports, the UK’s largest port operator.

Video of veteran JOC West Coast Senior Editor Bill Mongelluzzo describing congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the many factors causing it.

Crippling congestion has spread from Manila to Batangas, one of the ports handling spillover cargo from Manila this year, leading Maersk line to tell customers on Friday that it will be limiting shipments to the port “to an absolute minimum.”

Importers and exporters can mitigate supply chain disruptions, such as the terrible congestion in Los Angeles-Long Beach, but their planning must begin months in advance, attendees at the JOC Inland Distribution Conference were told Friday.

Terminal congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach was clearly on the minds of JOC.com readers again this week, with six of the Top 10 stories focusing on the issue.

Sensing an opportunity from the woes of Southern California, Oakland says it should be considered an attractive port for diversions from Los Angeles-Long Beach.

Kansas City Southern Railway is talking with ocean carriers and beneficial cargo owners about diverting shipments bound for the U.S. Gulf region away from congestion-wracked Los Angeles-Long Beach to the Port of Lazaro Cardenas in south-central Mexico.

While the Port of Tacoma reported year-over-year growth in container volumes in September, Seattle suffered another month of double-digit volume decline.

The Port of Tampa Bay is hoping the addition of two new post-Panamax cranes will usher in a "new era" for the port's container business.

Russia's ban on food imports from a number of Western countries has created new shipping opportunities; fruits and vegetables traditionally supplied by European producers are being replaced by suppliers from other countries.