Port News

Rotterdam’s container traffic increased 4.2 percent year-over-year in the first three quarters of 2014 as strong growth on deep-sea routes offset lower feeder shipments.

Some say the current gridlock at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is on par with the most severe disruption the ports have seen in the past two decades, but Art Wong, spokesperson for the Port of Long Beach, told JOC.com today that the current congestion ― while serious ― is no where near that bad.

The massive congestion affecting the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is creating a fresh wave of diversions to other ports as shippers flee the worst congestion that the largest port complex in the Americas has seen in at least a decade.

Vessels are still backed up off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as gridlock at the Southern California ports continues.

Brazil’s presidential runoff betweenincumbent Dilma Rousseff and Aecio Neves has important implications for efforts to put the country’s ports and maritime industry.on a more solid footing.

Matson Inc.’s Matson Terminals subsidiary will plead guilty to two misdemeanor violations and pay a $1 million penalty to resolve all federal criminal charges arising from a September 2013 molasses spill in Honolulu Harbor.

Antwerp’s container traffic grew 5 percent year-over-year in the first three quarters of 2014, putting the Belgian port on track for a record total throughput in 2014.

Aided by a Pennsylvania incentive program, Mediterranean Shipping Co. will continue to operate a direct service between North Europe and Boston and Philadelphia alongside its forthcoming 2M Alliance with Maersk Line.

U.S. shippers, transportation groups and members of Congress. are intensifying pressure on Congressional appropriators to produce legislation that would send more money collected via the harbor maintenance tax back to ports as envisioned in landmark legislation signed earlier this year.

International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold Daggett called the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor an “evil empire,” and said the bistate crime watchdog agency should be abolished.

Dockworkers in Costa Rica walked off the job today, continuing a long battle over a proposed container terminal operated by APM Terminals with a strike.

DP World's newest Jebel Ali terminal received its first vessel call today, paving the way for the automated terminal to become fully operational next year.

Hamburg Süd said it has taken steps to combat significant delays in vessel arrivals and departures at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as severe congestion at the largest port complex in the Americas has reached a new level of intensity.

Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka assured footwear importers meeting in Long Beach Tuesday that the Southern California ports have proposals that could provide some immediate relief to the worsening congestion problem in the harbor.

A container terminal in Sydney, Nova Scotia, in eastern Canada is unlikely to be built because of poor rail connections and a slow recovery in container shipping, a prominent Canada shipping authority said this week.

Toy importers are feeling the impact of congestion and delays at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Guangdong Province in south China is working in several ways to improve its port competitiveness, by encouraging collaboration among Pearl River Delta container terminals, easing customs rules and establishing more robust rail and waterborne connections into the interior, said Liu Xiaohua, Vice Director, Guangdong Provincial Transportation Department.

In a reminder of the parking lot that the San Pedro Bay became during the 2002 lockout by the Pacific Maritime Association of ILWU workers, container ships are backed up once again off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach waiting for days for a berth as gridlock descends on the largest port complex in the Americas.

More than 100 national, state and local organizations have signed a letter urging a speedy agreement on a West Coast port labor contract “to allay growing concerns of thousands of businesses” that rely on the ports.

India will invest $85.21 million in the development and operation of cargo facilities at Iran’s Chabahar port, as New Delhi seeks to enhance its strategic interest in Central Asia.

The South Carolina Ports Authority today received the first ship call of a new consolidated South American east coast service that brings additional post-Panamax vessels to Charleston.

State and federal politicians are balking at the potential privatization of the Port of Boston’s busiest terminal, an option brought forth by the port authority as it continues to look for ways to erase a funding shortfall totaling $200 million.

The global shipping community is feeling the effects of Ebola in the form of vessel delays and schedule changes, along with potential quarantines and ship health screenings.

The executive director of the Port of Los Angeles said efforts to fix the congestion problem in Southern California will fall short until the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association negotiate a new contract.

Severe port congestion at the Philippines’ port of Manila in recent months resulted in average vessel delays of more than five days, according to a recent report from CargoSmart.

A European construction consortium will begin work this year to expand the Suez Canal under a $1.5 billion contract from the Egyptian government announced on Saturday.

Coverage on congestion at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex continued to interest JOC.com readers this past week, as what could be the worst gridlock to hit the largest port complex in the Americas continues.

Truckers or cargo interests who contend that terminal operators have unlawfully billed them for late retrieval of containers while the ports were congested have the right to file a complaint with the Federal Maritime Commission, according to a commission staff member.

The Port of Long Beach is temporarily giving container cargo owners three extra days of free time to keep import containers on the docks.

Two organizations in Rotterdam are calling for urgent dialogues concerning the ports' congestion and overcapacity

Congestion-caused delays at the largest U.S. port complex are pushing up outbound spot market truck rates from the Los Angeles-Long Beach market to inland distribution points.

Quick180, a new online service that matches exporters needing a container with importers who have an unloaded box they want to get rid of, has signed Maersk Line as a participant.

An on-again, off-again dispute between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and ICTSI, operator of Terminal 6 at the Port of Portland, once again shut down the port’s only container terminal for two days this week.

India’s Port of Visakhapatnam reopened to marine traffic today, five days after Cyclone Hudhud’s devastation at the state-owned port complex.

British Columbia’s Port Metro Vancouver is in the home stretch of implementing its new truck licensing system, which aims to balance the number of registered trucks with the amount of available work in an effort to stabilize port operations.

Brasil Terminal Portuaria in the Port of Santos handled around 69,000 containers in the month of September, nudging ahead of long-time market leader Tecon Santos, which handled only 62,000 in September.

The Port of Virginia’s container traffic exceeded the 200,000-TEU mark for the fifth month in a row in September, despite ongoing drayage congestion.

Representatives of the port, shipper and labor communities agree that Los Angeles and Long Beach must reduce congestion and improve productivity at marine terminals, but they differ on how to reach those goals.

A nine-hour operation to reign in a rogue container ship in Australia's Port Botany apparently only resulted in superficial damage to ships from Hapag-Lloyd, OOCL and Safmarine.