Port News

Mazda North American Operators has become the Port of Baltimore’s newest auto customer after agreeing to a five-year contract with auto processor Amports...

The International Longshoremen’s Association has served notice that it will insist on retaining its jurisdiction over chassis that truckers lease from equipment providers that have historically used ILA labor for maintenance and repair.

Import volume at major U.S. retail container ports is expected to rise 1.7 percent month-over-month in August, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker...

For the second time in four months, International Longshoremen’s Association members in Hampton Roads have rejected a local contract covering gang sizes and other issues.

Drayage companies in the Port of New York and New Jersey are asking container lines to waive per-diem charges for late return of containers and chassis to congested terminals, and are threatening to challenge per-diem bills caused by the terminals’ delays.

The Port of Virginia is experiencing an influx of rail cargo at Norfolk International Terminals and APM Terminals in Portsmouth as a result of peak season volume...

Contecon Manzanillo, operator of the Specialized Container Terminal 2 in Mexico’s Port of Manzanillo, has received its first vessel, the 5,500-TEU Maersk Kalamata.

Peel Ports has appointed specialized contractors BAM Nuttall and Van Oord to construct a new in-river quay wall at the Port of Liverpool’s post-Panamax container terminal, Liverpool2, in the U.K.

Black Sea ports most likely will not receive vessels of 10,000 20-foot-equivalent units in the near future, as the ports are not prepared and productivity is too low, according to the latest issue of SeaIntel Sunday Spotlight.

U.S. footwear imports in 2012 slipped 0.4 percent year-over-year, although they are predicted to rise from $23.4 billion in 2012 to $29.6 billion in 2017...

Regarding the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s lawsuit against Oregon’s Port of Portland, the port has responded that at “no time” did it deny access to its public records.

HHLA Container Terminal Burchardkai at Germany’s Port of Hamburg has received four new gantry cranes designed for the latest generation of mega-ships.

An increasing volume of cargo is being delayed by late deliveries or rolled over as the peak season comes into full force, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

London Gateway has landed its first shipping line service, the Southern Africa Europe Container Service, which will start calling at the DP World-operated container terminal in November...

Gulf States Cold Storage has opened a 100,000 square foot cold storage facility serving the Port of Savannah.

This summer’s delays at New York-New Jersey’s container terminals are spurring the port’s diverse factions to work together on short-term and long-term solutions to difficult issues, Rick Larrabee, director of port commerce at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said.

The Port of Seattle Commission has approved $267.7 million for the State Route 99 Alaska Way Viaduct Replacement Program.

International Container Terminal Services reported its net income in the second quarter of 2013 was $44.2 million, jumping 26 percent year-over year from $35.0 million.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union has filed a lawsuit against the Port of Portland, Ore., alleging numerous ongoing violations of the Oregon Public Records Act.

India’s Kandla Port Trust has issued a request for qualification from interested bidders for the construction and operation of a new container terminal under the public-private partnership model.

The opening of a new container terminal at Colombo in Sri Lanka, designed to attract transshipment traffic, is unlikely to have a serious impact on the dynamics of liner shipping in the Indian Ocean, analysts say.

The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners today approved a new port master plan, updating the Port of Los Angeles’s development policies and procedures for the first time in more than three decades.

The volume of containers handled by major ports in India slipped 4.73 percent year-over-year from April to July, the first four months of fiscal year 2013-14, the Indian Ports Association said in a statement.

A program to require radio-frequency identification tags on trucks serving container terminals at the Port of New York and New Jersey will go into effect Aug. 19.

Israel’s National Labor Court has ordered the federal government to temporarily halt tenders for the building of two new private ports until Sept. 1 and launch negotiations with unions regarding the process, Haaretz reports.

The Port of Baltimore’s public marine terminals handled a record 9.55 million tons of general cargo in fiscal year 2013, from July 2012 through June 2013...

Estonia’s Port of Tallinn handled 14.93 million metric tons of cargo in the first six months of 2013, a decline of 6 percent year-over-year.

The Sri Lanka Ports Authority has launched Vision 2020, a corporate plan with the theme “Logistics Excellence in the Silk Road.”

Russia’s Commercial Port of Vladivostok handled 47,900 cars, trucks and heavy duty vehicles in the first half of 2013, increasing 23.5 percent compared with the same period in 2012.

The Port of Tacoma in Washington has hired Dustin Stoker to direct its new operations center.

The first four new gates for the Panama Canal’s third set of locks is scheduled to arrive in Panama from Italy on Aug. 19, 2013.

England’s Port of Dover reported its traffic in the cross-Channel freight market in the first six months of 2013 rose 11 percent compared with the same period last year...

Metro Ports Canada, part of Nautilus International, has signed an agreement with Pinnacle Renewable Energy to manage the Westview Terminal operation, a wood pellet, railcar-receiving...

The Hamburg Süd Cap San Nicholas, a 9,700 20-foot-equivalent unit capacity vessel, has called at the Port of Buenos Aires, discharging about 800 containers at the APM Terminals Terminal 4 facility.

Ocean carriers, struggling to make a profit in the face of overcapacity and declining freight rates, are taking dramatic and sometimes unexpected actions to slash costs. In this environment of frenzied cost-cutting, the proprietary container terminal operated for a single shipping line is becoming an endangered species.

ExpressRail, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey’s rail system that serves the port’s marine terminals, has handled its 5 millionth container since it opened in 1991.

The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has plans to consider the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2013 when Congress returns from its August recess in September...