Port News

Volumes at Port of Miami continued to dwindle in July, newly released numbers show, but port officials are hoping that throughput volumes will be boosted in subsequent months by new customers and improved trade opportunities.

American Trucking Associations Chairman Philip L. Byrd Sr. said the ATA is "bound and determined" to roll back changes to federal rules on drivers' hours of service, and to win revisions in the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's Complaince Safety, Accountability program .

Cargo headed to the U.S. from Cambodia will face added scrutiny due to what the U.S. Homeland Security calls inadequate security measures

Robert Curry Sr., president and CEO of California Cartage Co., was presented this week with the West Coast Connie award sponsored by the Containerization and Intermodal Institute. The award recognizes individual achievement in international trade and intermodal transportation.

A Dutch court has rejected a claim by ECT, Rotterdam’s largest container terminal operator, that the port authority acted unlawfully in awarding concessions for two giant terminals about to start operations to its rivals.

Boosted by larger vessels and a larger customer base, container volumes at the Port of Tacoma took off in August.

Shippers and ocean carriers already grappling with severe intermodal rail delays at India’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port should expect more troubles due to the planned shutdown of container berths for two months beginning in mid-October for the installation of new quay cranes.

South American ports are struggling to keep up with explosive growth in demand. The average size of ships calling on the east coast of South America has increased 140 percent since 2006, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

Congestion at Hong Kong’s container terminals has reached a “critical stage” and the city’s container terminals and shipping lines have called on the government to urgently make land available for port logistics and additional barge berths.

Retailers today bemoan the fact that the ILWU and Pacific Maritime Association negotiations have dragged on for more than four months still without conclusion. But they may not recall that it took the ILA and the U.S. Maritime Alliance 13 months to finalize their current contract in April 2013.

All 12 major Indian ports will become connected to railroads, which will also connect major factories and inland waterways, the union minister of road transport and highways and shipping, Nitin Gadkari, said today.

Container handling at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach was back to normal by Wednesday’s night shift as the Los Angeles Fire Department declared Tuesday’s fire at the Pasha breakbulk terminal to be completely snuffed out.

The Justice Department’s announcement that it has no plans to challenge a proposed agreement between two major chassis lessors at Los Angeles-Long Beach is a key step forward in eradicating a severe problem with chassis availability that has contributed to terminal congestion at the ports all year.

Global container port traffic will top 840 million 20-foot-equivalent units by 2018, with Africa and greater China posting the fastest growth rates, according to shipping consultancy Drewry.

The Justice Department said it won’t challenge an agreement by two major container pools to share each other’s intermodal chassis in a “gray” pool in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Diesel particulate matter emissions from ships, trucks, trains and other big machines at the Port of Long Beach has declined by 82 percent since 2005, according to an annual analysis of the area’s air quality.

Negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association will likely conclude without a strike or lockout, former Maersk port executive Tony Scioscia told the IANA conference in Long Beach this week.

Port executives at West Coast landlord ports say that when it comes to fixing congestion resulting from big ships and carrier alliances, the buck stops with them.

Joseph P. Ruddy has been appointed chief innovation officer at the Port of Virginia, and Shawn Tibbets will succeed him as chief operations officer.

The southern Italian port of Taranto, once a leading transhipment hub, faces an uncertain future after losing its last long-haul intercontinental service in the latest shake up in the fiercely competitive Mediterranean container market.

Shanghai may be the busiest container port in the world, but almost half the boxes that cross its wharves every year are first carried down the mighty Yangtze River from manufacturing hubs deep inland.

U.S. ports are under increasing pressure to modernize their facilities to handle larger vessels and keep their existing infrastructure up to par. Fortunately, for some ports, Uncle Sam is giving them a boost via Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program.

New Jersey Senate committee has approved a bill to withdraw the state from the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor.

Having reached a tentative agreement Aug. 26 on the crucial issue of medical benefits, negotiators for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association have spent the past month discussing operational issues at marine terminals.

The Labor Department has awarded $10,225,183 to help 19 states crack down on companies that misclassify workers as independent contractors or fail to report wages that support unemployment insurance.

BMW Group has opened a vehicle processing and distribution center to support a new five-year agreement that will increase the German automaker’s imports through the Port of Baltimore.

PierPass, the entity that runs the offpeak program at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, said veteran transportation executive John Cushing will take over as president from Bruce Wargo, who led the organization since its inception in 2004 and who will remain CEO.

As container ships grow steadily larger due to carriers seeking greater economies of scale, ports find themselves struggling to cope with the burdens, being forced into huge investments for deepening and infrastructure that may or may not pay off, according to a senior Port of Long Beach official.

Ohio’s Port of Cleveland and Dutch breakbulk carrier Spliethoff Group have decided to add a second monthly vessel to the Cleveland-Europe Express, or CEE ― the only container and breakbulk service currently operating between Europe and a Great Lakes port.

Peruvian President Ollanta Humala has toured APM Terminals Callao to view how the terminal operator’s investment of more than $750 million at the port’s North Terminal is being modernized to handle larger ships.

There really was a Christmas in July this year, at least in terms of increased global container business. That bodes well for North American trucking, intermodal rail and package delivery companies now preparing for an influx of freight ahead of the holiday season.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has authorized $356 million to develop a long-delayed intermodal rail transfer facility for Global Terminal in Bayonne, New Jersey, and to expand container-on-barge service to Brooklyn.

The Manila truck ban that was imposed by the city in February and led to the worst congestion the port has experienced, created food shortages and pushed up prices of consumer goods has been lifted.

The Port of Charleston’s strong container traffic in August has furthered its strategy for above-market growth, although the outlook for the rest of the year is not quite so bright.

The state of Hawaii plans to build a new $266 million container terminal in Honolulu to cater to anticipated higher levels of cargo volumes in coming decades, according to West Hawaii Today.

The number of ships quarantined in Los Angeles by Asian Gypsy Moth infestations has risen to 15 as inspectors battle to keep the invasive species from making its way into North America.

The Philadelphia Regional Port Authority is seeking “expressions of interest” from potential developers of Southport, a 200-acre Delaware River waterfront site where a container terminal had been planned.

India plans nearly a 50 percent increase in port fees including stevedoring and pilotage at Chennai to improve the port's financial performance

The northern Chile port of Iquique plans an $80 million expansion.

China’s top port operator and an engineering group will invest $601 million in a container terminal at Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port, as China seeks to deepen its ties with the strategically placed Indian Ocean island.