Port News

While the ocean shipping market has largely normalized after COVID-19, stakeholders would be wise to pursue a business strategy that takes operationally disruptive events into account, writes analyst Lars Jensen.

Breakbulk shippers and logistics providers have several proposals for changes to ISPM 15 mitigation and enforcement measures pending approval from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Longshore workers represented by ILWU Local 13 are refusing to stagger their meal breaks at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, resulting in periods when no work is being done on the docks, says the Pacific Maritime Association.

As the US West Coast’s share of import TEU has fallen in recent years, analyst Larry Gross notes there is an important difference between declines due to sourcing location changes and declines due to loss of share by region.

The independent equipment providers say upending the current business model would create additional chassis shortages and invoicing problems that would inconvenience cargo owners.

February marked the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year declines in Asian imports, but those declines are being compared with the record or near-record import volumes that were posted in late 2021 and early 2022.

Delays began to build after an equipment upgrade project to enhance productivity and capacity at APM Terminals Mumbai put one of its berths out of commission for six months.

The bill would heighten transparency into regulatory penalties levied against ocean carriers and marine terminal operators and draw a sharp line on the involvement of China-based entities in US shipping.

Wan Hai’s two pandemic-era US East Coast services will be merged in a move designed to provide more regular capacity.

In approving the $31 billion merger, the Surface Transportation Board rejected arguments from the FMC and competing railroads that the deal would harm US ports and shippers.

The rare occurrence – in which multiple longshore labor negotiations across North America are taking place either simultaneously or nearly so — is enough to make shippers nervous, or at least wary, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

Wan Hai is now looking at a larger civil penalty than it faced nearly a year ago following an investigation into detention charges the carrier assessed in the spring of 2021.

MSC and other leading carriers serving Indian trades have been reorganizing their service networks and vessel deployments in a bid to match excess capacity with weakening demand conditions.

A variety of data sources suggest it is premature to conclude that supply chain bottlenecks have reverted to their pre-COVID levels, as issues continue to be more pervasive than before the pandemic, writes analyst Jason Miller.

The Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association says the FMC’s chief administrative judge erred in issuing a summary judgement against the group because key facts are still in dispute.

Drayage software vendor PortPro is attempting to narrow the gap between the tools that port truckers and their shipper customers use with a new container milestone tracking product it has launched.

Norfolk Southern and the Port of Virginia are not only targeting importers using trans-Atlantic services from Europe and Asia, but also exporters moving goods through Memphis, such as the cotton industry.

Yang Ming echoed the warnings of its competitors, saying consumer spending power has fallen since the fourth quarter of last year because of inflation, while high inventory levels have also affected demand.

Shippers are showing “healthy adoption” of a wide variety of digital transformation projects, according to new research from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Retailers say their main concern right now is to avoid over-ordering product from factories in Asia until they get a better handle on consumer demand later this summer.

Trucking and intermodal providers are offering discounts to secure freight in Southern California, where volumes are declining as imports from Asia fall.

The move by the carrier comes as the FMC is in the midst of a rulemaking process around detention and demurrage billing mandated by the passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 last June.

It is unlikely an agreement between ILWU Canada and West Coast employers will be reached before the current contract expires on March 31, sources say, as negotiations in past cycles often lasted 12 to 18 months.

Shippers struggling to manage demurrage fees and container availability information have two new options to track the status of containers at ports.

Contract negotiations between International Longshore and Warehouse Union office workers and shipping lines and terminal operators in Southern California are proceeding slowly with the June 30 deadline approaching, even as the 10-month-old ILWU dockworker negotiations drag on.

Southeast ports are handling more imports from Asia than ever, but it’s unclear how much of that growth will stick once negotiations over a new West Coast longshore contract conclude.

Technology startup Qualle is trying to overcome drayage industry inertia around matching empty import boxes with export loads outside of ports by using early-stage funding to serve every North American port market.

The federal government says it’s looking to fund projects across the country that will help move goods, particularly in rural areas, and strengthen the country’s supply chain.

Although surprised by the magnitude of the January drop in vessel on-time arrivals in the trans-Pacific, analysts expect carrier performance to improve this year.

From China to West Coast labor talks to the possibility of a rate war, a number of major factors weighed heavily on trans-Pacific service contract discussions taking place on the sidelines of TPM23.

The JV will serve Vietnam's three major ports and link with nearby provinces where direct access to international and domestic shipping services is limited.

The Port of Los Angeles’ executive director acknowledged that stalled West Coast longshore labor talks are taking a toll on the port, but says the cost of shipping through California is also a big factor.

While the supply chain has mostly healed from COVID-19, the pandemic revealed the risk of relying too much on China for product sourcing, CMA CGM’s new US president told TPM23.

The South Carolina Ports Authority will be able to launch its proprietary chassis pool as scheduled in March thanks to a last-minute agreement to secure 5,000 chassis from two major equipment providers.

Encouraging carriers in their somewhat tentative bid to raise rates from recent lows are India’s trade indicators, including the country’s role as a sourcing alternative to China.

The rare joint statement comes amid growing frustration among US importers and West Coast ports that more than nine months of talks have yet to produce a new labor deal, causing a shift of cargo to ports along the East and Gulf ports.

Europe’s three biggest container shipping ports reported falling volumes in 2022, with throughput dragged lower by geopolitics, COVID-19, and economic headwinds.

The Global Shipping Business Network is giving exporters an app that would track changes to earliest return dates across container terminals that use Navis terminal operating systems.

The move by the South Carolina Ports Authority to cut hours at the Leatherman terminal comes a month after Hapag-Lloyd announced it would no longer call the facility amid an ongoing labor battle.

Rising demand from importers reckoning with the costs of detention and demurrage have fueled an $11 million investment into container management provider BlueCargo.