Port News

A rise in consumer spending in Europe has kept volume at the port in positive territory so far this year, but full vessels and “peak loads” are keeping pressure on terminals and inland connections.

Market sources say cargo leaving ports in Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay is being delayed because ships bound for those ports are arriving from the US with disrupted schedules following the Oct. 1-3 strike.

The Belgian hub says it now handles almost one-third of the container trade in the busy Hamburg-Le Havre port range.

The US Department of Transportation’s latest round of infrastructure grants also target port-adjacent roadways, berth expansions and yard equipment electrification.

The carrier will exit the 2M Alliance next January and has been on an acquisition spree over the past year to shore up its global logistics and container terminal operations.

The country could be on the verge of undoing legislation that abolished cabotage restrictions, saying the boost received by foreign-flag carriers has come at the expense of local shipping interests.

Despite its brevity, shippers can expect to see ongoing impacts on tonnage supply on some trade lanes from the Oct. 1-3 strike, Lars Jensen told the South Carolina International Trade Conference.

The group, comprising ONE, HMM and Yang Ming, said the changes apply to two trans-Pacific services and an Asia-Mediterranean service.

The port’s main container terminals are among the facilities affected by the overtime strike that Montreal’s dockworkers have deployed as part of contentious contract negotiations.

Forwarders say their containers are sitting at some terminals for 10 days or longer before they can be retrieved, although some relief in import volumes and dwell times is expected next month.

Barbara Melvin says 2024 hit Charleston in unexpected ways, but the full reopening of the Leatherman terminal was a major achievement for the port’s future expansion.

While longshore wages will not increase until a formal contract is signed, the container shipping industry is starting to tally up the billions in new costs that will come with the almost 62% wage hike, according to a Journal of Commerce analysis

The port reopened on Saturday after engineering firm Woolpert performed a survey to check for storm debris in shipping channels.

DP World’s group chairman and CEO had initially ordered the cancellation of Monday’s announcement after being angered by comments made last week by two UK government officials.

The move comes after two UK government officials sharply criticized the March 2022 mass layoffs at DP World subsidiary P&O Ferries while launching new legislation to protect seafarer rights.

Carriers began pulling the charges shortly after the end of the strike was announced last week, while pressure to do so came even earlier from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

Some have speculated that specific issues were raised that persuaded at least some of the carrier group CEOs to direct their representatives on the USMX to boost their offer of a pay increase.

Port officials say their facilities did not experience widespread flooding but are still being affected by power issues, adding that port tenants will make independent decisions on when to resume their operations.

The huge import volumes that moved across US docks in August are also muting the post-Golden Week bounce that normally occurs in mid-October when retailers ship their high-value holiday merchandise through the West Coast.

Vessels are waiting just over two days on average before getting into the harbor in the wake of last week’s ILA strike and Hurricane Helene in late September.

Local freight forwarders say carriers on the trade lane are willing to strike special rate deals with large-volume customers on a per-sailing or short-term contract basis.

With no improvement in the Red Sea security situation and shippers preparing for 2025 contracts, Gemini has jettisoned the traditional shorter route in favor of the longer transit around southern Africa.

If ports operated by ILA labor were for decades a dependable alternative to those reliant on the ILA’s perpetually disruptive West Coast counterpart, the ILWU, that assumption no longer holds true, writes Peter Tirschwell.

Eight ports that are working toward “just-in-time” port calls provided their experiences of improving quality around vessel-terminal data sharing.

Last week’s three-day longshore strike on the East and Gulf coasts is not expected to disrupt transportation supply chains ahead of the traditional beginning of the holiday shopping season, the National Retail Federation said.

The union’s refusal to work overtime has prompted Montreal’s employer group in turn to decline to pay longshore crews that do not have a full complement of workers.

With the 62% wage increase being an unprecedented offer to the union, the USMX will be hard-pressed to give in on other key demands the ILA is making, sources tell the Journal of Commerce.

Ports on the US East and Gulf coasts say they have spare capacity and expect minor disruptions as they process more than 60 ships backlogged by a three-day strike

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach registered their best year ever in reducing emissions, but they still face daunting challenges as they strive to reduce pollution that remains from vessel, cargo handling, truck and rail sources.

New provisional guidelines from Indian regulators will allow the major shipping alliances to operate at national ports as long as homegrown carriers get guaranteed access to a 5% share of the massive vessel-sharing agreements.

Maritime employers and the union representing some 45,000 East and Gulf coast dockworkers have reportedly closed the gap in wage expectations to just $1 per hour per year.

Refrigerated container shippers using US East and Gulf coast ports are tapping some non-unionized terminals, but they fear produce stuck on ships and in ports will spoil, and equipment will become scarcer if the strike lasts longer than a week.

Ocean carriers appear to be banking on a short port strike, allowing ships to remain on scheduled calls or sit at anchorage, but those plans could change if East and Gulf ports remain closed through the end of the week.

The Biden administration’s message of support for striking longshore workers — and inferring of carrier price gouging — shuts down any hopes for a federal government intervention in the short term, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

If the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) strike continues past next week, shippers say they will likely book more freight through West Coast ports, rather than risk being caught up in logjams at East and Gulf coast ports.

Several groups are calling on the White House to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act to stop the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) strike that began on Tuesday at midnight.

A nationwide rail strike this year in Canada and the shutdown on British Columbia ports in 2023 give Montreal stakeholders little confidence that the Trudeau government will act swiftly to end wider strikes at the Port of Montreal if port workers pursue more.

The International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) rejected a last-minute offer from maritime employers that included higher wages and retirement contributions, as the first strike by East and Gulf coast port workers since 1977 got underway.

Trucking companies rushed to remove containers at East and Gulf coast ports before a Tuesday strike as nearby yards swell with container equipment and chassis.

Container lines are contracting directly with perishables shippers, undercutting volume brokers, but the specialized reefer fleet is hanging on to niche markets as a handful of ports pivot toward dockside cold storage.