Port News

In the brutal war for cargo that is underway in today’s world of powerful shipping alliances, the last thing the Southern California ports want to do is subsidize competitors by helping them pay to deepen their ports, the president of the Long Beach Harbor Commission said yesterday.

JUAREZ, Mexico — Each Christmas ornament or mannequin that is shipped from here to major U.S. retailers is a sign of Mexico’s growing competitive edge with China.

Pacific Maritime Association President Jim McKenna said today the U.S. West Coast employers’ organization will begin contract negotiations with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union on May 12, an announcement that should silence calls from retailers urging an early start to negotiations.

The National Retail Federation urged the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and its West Coast employers to start contract negotiations immediately and to keep bargaining even if they don’t reach a deal before the current agreement expires June 30.

A group representing cruise operators, stevedores and the International Longshoremen’s Association bought full-page newspaper advertisements to criticize soccer star David Beckham’s proposal to build a 25,000-seat stadium at the Port of Miami.

The neighboring ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will step up their collaboration if necessary to increase market share in a new era of powerful carrier alliances, but a merger of the two ports does not appear likely.

Philippine terminal operators believe calls to transfer container-handling operations away from Manila as part of the solution to ease chronic traffic congestion in the city are unrealistic.

With productivity a growing battleground among container terminals, Singapore is making a high-profile research investment to ensure its port, the world’s second busiest, remains competitive.

The Hong Kong port faces challenges on several fronts.

A standoff continues between Baltimore port employers and the International Longshoremen’s Association over a local contract covering non-containerized breakbulk and automobile shipments.

The International Labor Organization voted to support amending an international labor convention by requiring shipowners to provide financial security to compensate seafarers abandoned at ports away from their native countries.

The number of foreign trade containers handled by the Port of Osaka in western Japan rose to a new record high in 2013, according to preliminary figures from the Osaka municipal government.

U.S. shippers in the coming weeks will engage in a full-court press on Capitol Hill and at the White House to voice the importance of preventing labor disruption at West Coast ports as the expiration of the current coastwise longshore agreement approaches.

The Los Angeles 2020 Commission today urged the rival ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to merge...

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said the state port authority’s operating losses must end, and that he plans “some very substantial changes” to the port board and wants to renegotiate its 20-year lease of APM Terminals’ Portsmouth facility.

Contracted dockworkers at Hong Kong’s Kwai Chung Container Terminals have been told they will receive a 12 percent pay increase, but after last year’s successful strike...

European ports will struggle to handle the revamped services due to be launched by the P3 and G6 carrier alliances due to their weak intermodal transport links, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

Manila’s heavy vehicle access restrictions, imposed in February to help ease the city’s notorious gridlock, are frustrating the Philippine shipping and logistics industry.

Signaling an end to the winter doldrums and the beginning of a busy spring in the U.S. container trades, Global Port Tracker is forecasting that imports in April will increase 6.1 percent over April 2013.

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach handled 40.9 percent of all U.S. containerized imports in 2013, and 25.5 percent of U.S. exports.

A consortium of Japan’s Mitsubishi Corp. and Kamigumi Co. has acquired a 25 percent stake in Spanish container terminal operator TCV Stevedoring Company S.A. (TCV), Mitsubishi said today.

As West Coast waterfront employers prepare to enter contract negotiations in May with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, their message to the ILWU is clear: The new contract must keep West Coast ports competitive in the battle among North American ports for discretionary cargo.

The volume of export and import containers handled at major ports in India slid 3 percent year-over-year in fiscal year 2013-14, from April 2013 to March 2014, but total cargo tonnage inched up 1.78 percent, according to the latest traffic data released by the Indian Ports Association.

Truck drivers have been back on the job for about one week now at Port Metro Vancouver, but Canada’s largest port remains quite congested, and moving containers into and out of the harbor is a chore.

The Virginia Port Authority listed a series of steps it is taking to ease cargo and truck delays while the port and its users seek long-term answers to challenges of rising volumes, larger ships, and spikes in demand at container terminals.

The Port of Virginia said part of its Portsmouth Marine Terminal, which was closed in 2011, will return to service as a staging area for automobiles that will be exported to China.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union this past week won several battles in its war against the Port of Portland and terminal operator ICTSI, and it lost a battle.

Container volumes at North American West Coast ports declined in February as factories in Asia closed for the Chinese New Year celebration.

In the battle between West Coast and East Coast ports for discretionary cargo, it is becoming clear that the winners will be those ports with the best waterside and landside infrastructure.

NEWPORT, R.I. — Working groups in a New York-New Jersey port performance task force are scheduled to report initial recommendations next week, providing a foundation for the task force’s scheduled recommendations in June.

NEWPORT, R.I. — Retailers are stepping up their criticism of management and labor in the upcoming West Coast longshore negotiations, saying they should give shippers the predictability they are looking for by using the time between now and the June 30th contract expiration to get a deal done.

LONG BEACH, Calif. — Long truck lines and excessive delays at marine terminal threaten present and future growth at the Southern California ports, a trucking association official said today at the annual Pulse of the Ports meeting in Long Beach.

NEWPORT, R.I. — With a shortage of chassis a major contributor to gridlock at the Port of New York and New Jersey this winter, the idea of a portwide chassis pool is gaining traction as one possible element in an overall solution to the port’s growing congestion issues.

Maersk Group signed an agreement with China Shipping paving the way for negotiations on further collaboration on new container terminal projects and the establishment of joint ventures with its port arm, APM Terminals.

Container throughput at India’s Port of Jawaharlal Nehru declined 2.5 percent year-over-year in fiscal year 2013-14, which ended March 31, 2014, continuing a slide that began in the previous fiscal year.

Port Metro Vancouver is confident that the revised 14-point action plan that convinced truck drivers in late March to end their four-week strike will establish the framework for a long-term solution to the port’s frustrating drayage problems.

WASHINGTON — A group representing agricultural shippers and forwarders has warned members to prepare for labor disruptions and slowdowns at U.S West Coast ports starting in June and to make contingency plans