Port News

With the pending expansion to the Port of Savannah of a U.S. Department of Agriculture pilot program, three southern U.S. ports will be able to receive South American blueberries and grapes.

The United Grain export terminal in Vancouver, Washington, which has been picketed by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union since dockworkers were locked out the facility in February 2013, is urging national farm interests to join the company in convincing the U.S. Department of Agriculture to assign inspectors so grain exports can return to normal.

Port Everglades officials say they expect the port’s container volume to increase by as much as 47,500 20-foot-equivalent-unit containers annually following the recent transfer of two of King Ocean’s eastern Caribbean services from PortMiami.

Negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Northwest Grain Handlers Association, which represents a half-dozen export facilities in Oregon and Washington, are not concluded, though both parties say weekend bargaining has gone well.

A $668.5 million tunnel that allows drayage trucks to bypass congested downtown streets opened with minimal fanfare yesterday at PortMiami.

The Panama Canal Authority and the consortium hired to build a third set of locks have amended their construction contract to reflect a March settlement of a payment dispute that interrupted work for two weeks.

Port Metro Vancouver’s penalty system for terminals is cutting truck turn times and drawing attention from other North American ports struggling with drayage challenges. And congestion seen earlier this year at Rotterdam has continued, prompting diversions and surcharges, and the congestion is spreading to other ports in the North Europe range.

The first half of 2014 saw the start of several stories that JOC.com will most likely be covering for the next year and perhaps beyond.

Terminal operators are responding to the tsunami of large vessels that have descended upon global ports by dramatically ramping up their productivity in turning the mega-ships. But the gains realized are only a taste of what will be necessary when the next generation of vessels arrive on the scene by 2018, industry analysts say.

Hapag-Lloyd announced it is temporarily diverting vessels deployed on one of its Europe-Asia services from Rotterdam to Antwerp as congestion worsens at Europe’s biggest container port as the peak shipping season gathers speed.

The largest container terminal operator in the Port of New York and New Jersey has lost another bid to reduce the fees it must pay to the port authority.

Operations at the APL terminal at the Port of Los Angeles were back to normal this afternoon after several weeks of congestion that frayed the nerves of harbor truckers and tarnished the reputation of a terminal that had been considered a model of efficiency in the industry.

A group of pro-Palestinian activists will not be gathering en masse at Port of Oakland’s Berth 57 on Aug. 2 to protest the arrival of ships belonging to the Israel-based carrier Zim Integrated Shipping Services, the group announced on its Facebook page.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said port terminals handled record container lifts during the first half of 2014 despite winter storms that produced severe congestion during the year’s first weeks.

Terminal operator and stevedore Ports America, with services in every major U.S. port, is expanding its footprint on the U.S. West Coast.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are aggressively expanding their cargo-handling capacity through multibillion-dollar capital programs, while at the same time being careful not to build excess capacity that will drive terminal operators’ rates lower.

China will remain the clear leader in U.S. footwear imports even as Vietnam and other countries nibble away at its market share, according to a new forecast by the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America.

Indian Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari said the government is working on plans to augment overall tonnage capacity at major ports from the current 800 million tons to 1.6 billion tons over the next five years.

A U.S. House Republican has asked Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to review whether the granting of a 35-year container terminal concession at Florida’s Port Canaveral to United Arab Emirates-based port operator Gulftainer will impact national security.

Manila’s choked container port will finally have some relief as sweeper ships arrive to clear the thousands of empty boxes clogging the city terminals.

In Gene Seroka’s first meeting with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti after being named executive director of the Port of Los Angeles last month, the mayor told Seroka what is expected of him: “Maintain and grow the nation’s number one port.”

A long-awaited tunnel linking Miami’s port to the interstate highway system will be open for business at the beginning of next week, after months of delays.

Facing growing port congestion, the Port of Hamburg is implementing a far-reaching plan to better manage truck traffic of containers moving in and out of its terminals.

Dredging has begun on the first of two projects to deepen the Port of Houston’s container terminal channels from 40 to 45 feet, matching the depth of the Houston Ship Channel.

An activist group announced plans to block cargo moving off Israel-based Zim ships at Oakland on Aug. 2 to protest the conflict in Gaza.

Last winter, congestion at Port Metro Vancouver was so bad that it triggered a month-long strike by hundreds of truck drivers. Four months later, turn times are averaging less than an hour.

The Port of Savannah broke the three-million-TEU mark for the first time in its recently ended fiscal year, a new record for the port.

TRAC Intermodal CEO Keith Lovetro says he’s optimistic a “gray” chassis pool can be created for the Port of New York and New Jersey, but that chassis providers should have a say in how the portwide pool is governed.

Worsening congestion at the port of Rotterdam has prompted two short sea and feeder shipping lines to impose surcharges of around $100 per container.

Even though it now looks like it will be sometime in August before a new agreement between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and employers is in place, no one is panicking and tensions appear low. Why?

Drayage drivers serving New York-New Jersey port terminals said at a weekend forum that they need quick action to reduce turn times that require them to sit in long queues for several hours a day without full compensation.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association met for three days this past week without concluding negotiations; at the weekend, the parties announced a week-long recess in the talks. German carrier Hamburg Süd announced plans to acquire the container operations of Chile’s CCNI, in a move resembling the deal between larger competitor Hapag-Lloyd and Chile’s CSAV, and Crowley is reported to be in talks to acquire Horizon Lines’ Puerto Rico assets. Earnings reports by U.S. truckload carriers are pointing to a stronger freight recovery in the United States, though rail service continues to be held back. And on Friday, Anne S. Ferro announced her departure from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration after five years leading the agency.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association have recessed contract negotiations for the coming week so ILWU officers can participate in unrelated contract talks with grain handlers in the Pacific Northwest.

Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPH Trust) reported a 16 percent rise in first-half net profit on the back of improved U.S. and European cargo and greater transshipment volume.

Container volume at the Port of Philadelphia jumped 29 percent during the first half of the year, aided by two new services and a continuing shift of breakbulk to containers for shipments of imported fruit.

A year-long contract dispute between United Grain Corp. and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union effectively shut down export operations at the Vancouver, Wash., facility this month following a decision by the governor of Washington to withdraw state trooper escorts for grain inspectors.

DP World’s container traffic increased 9.3 percent on a like-for-like basis in the first half of 2014.

Malaysia’s Westports Holdings turned in an impressive first-half performance, with throughput rising 13 percent year-over-year and strong growth across all trade lanes.

The Port of Barcelona's container volume rose 7 percent year-over-year in the first half of 2014.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union today completed its two-day caucus in San Francisco, and the union will resume contract negotiations with the Pacific Maritime Association on Wednesday.