Port News

Officials in Savannah and Charleston want carriers to stop changing port calls because unexpectedly discharging containers in the other’s port causes landside woes and disrupts the overall supply chain.

A new plan rolling out in 2023 will streamline the Panama Canal’s tolling system and implement fees for empty boxes heading back to Asia, a move the Canal says “recognizes the repositioning value of empty containers.”

The cargo rush some expected after Shanghai’s warehouses and factories reopened once COVID-19 lockdown restrictions were lifted on June 1 has yet to materialize.

Truckers protesting the demise of the owner-operator working model in California shut down Oakland International Container Terminal after longshore workers refused to cross a picket line.

An acceleration of US imports from Europe in June suggests there will be no relief through the summer for overwhelmed US East Coast terminals.

The entry into a key Mediterranean hub is a major boost to Adani’s global ambitions, complementing its ongoing work on a container transshipment terminal at Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port, which is expected to go live in 2024.

East and Gulf coast ports in the first six months of 2022 continued to benefit from cargo diversions as national retailers sought to mitigate risk with the West Coast labor contract expiring on July 1.

Optimism is growing that a deal can be struck for a new West Coast longshore labor contract within a month or two, but that sentiment is not shared by all observers given the number of difficult issues that need to be resolved.

Europe’s second-busiest port is battling to stem falling container throughput as widespread disruption across logistics chains and the war in Ukraine affect its handling ability.

Wage negotiations between a German union and port employers have again failed to reach a settlement, with a two-day strike set to start Thursday as vessel congestion persists.

The ILA wants the White House to stay out of the labor dispute involving Charleston’s Leatherman terminal, after an FMC member sought intervention from President Joe Biden.

Industry sources said a four-day drayage strike this week in southern India left about 12,000 TEU stranded across three key ports, apart from stalling the gate-in of export boxes.

The developer of a proposed container terminal at Oregon’s Coos Bay is hoping the ongoing supply chain disruption will demonstrate the need for infrastructure that would take billions of dollars and years to build.

A series of European port strikes show the rising risk of industrial actions, as global inflation squeezes workers throughout containerized supply chains, writes JOC Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

US East Coast ports anticipate a busy third quarter and are bracing now to handle the volume with off-dock storage of long-dwelling imports and empty containers to keep cargo flowing smoothly.

Older container trucks serving the Port of Vancouver will begin to be phased out from mid-September as the port looks to replenish the fleet with cleaner-running vehicles.

Falling import volumes into North Europe amid rapidly deteriorating economic conditions have not provided any relief for hub ports in the region as logistics challenges mount.

German port union ver.di and port employers are locked in their sixth round of wage negotiations this week in a dispute over inflation-matching increases.

With Friday’s expiration of the contract between the ILWU and West Coast marine terminal employers, negotiations for a new deal enter a new and more unpredictable phase that has shippers on edge.

A report commissioned by the International Longshore & Warehouse Union suggests California levy a tax on automated terminals in Los Angeles-Long Beach, with revenues directed to communities that suffer economic harm from the loss of dockworker jobs.

A Federal Maritime Commissioner is calling on the White House to step in and help end the labor dispute that has kept Charleston’s Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal significantly underutilized since its opening last year.

After two years of keeping supply chains moving in a heavily disrupted logistics sector, and now facing rapidly rising inflation, transport worker unions in Europe are turning up the heat on employers.

Jacksonville Port Authority’s chief executive sees a chance to reverse a downward trend in the port’s Asia business with the completion of dredging and marine terminal improvements that will allow post-Panamax ships to call.

The South Carolina Ports Authority will extend Sunday hours for truckers through September, one of several initiatives officials believe will help the port navigate the upcoming peak season.

The commander of the US Army Corps of Engineers has endorsed a study about the merits of deepening and widening the Port of New York and New Jersey to allow larger ships to call and reduce wait times.

The US Supreme Court will allow New York and New Jersey to file legal arguments about whether a 70-year-old compact for joint port policing powers also allows either side to exit the deal.

With new incentives, the Port of New Orleans and Louisiana state economic officials are targeting retail distribution centers to ease export-import balance that’s cost the port service and volumes.

The congested North Europe hub of Antwerp is having its container terminal operations and inland logistics connections further tested by industrial action.

The US Department of Agriculture plans to help fund additional chassis for reefer cargo at the Port of Houston and to subsidize dray moves to a Port of Tacoma pop-up yard.

Robust imports from Asia in May produced a new record, defying concerns about high inflation in the US and COVID-19 lockdowns in Shanghai.

West Coast employers and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, in a rare joint statement while contract negotiations are under way, pledged to continue negotiations beyond July 1.

BNSF and Union Pacific say shippers are letting their containers sit too long at inland hubs, especially Chicago, delaying the return of trains to Southern California.

A breakdown in wage negotiations between German port employers and labor comes at a particularly inconvenient time, with supply chains heavily disrupted and peak season about to begin.

In a hot breakbulk market, carriers are asking for — and getting — far higher detention fees to cover their potential losses when shippers delay loading or picking up their cargo.

A drayage technology provider in the ports of LA and Long Beach that has prioritized dual transactions for its driver network said it is seeing a majority of moves in 2022 involve coordinated empty container drop-offs and laden import pickups.

The Port of Houston is trying to expedite a $1 billion dredging project as an ongoing surge in containerized freight shows the need for more capacity at the Gulf Coast’s busiest port.

Already congested ports in North Europe are bracing for a spike in volume this summer following the lifting of COVID-19 lockdowns in China, but deteriorating economic conditions in Europe could cause demand to drop in the fourth quarter.

West Coast terminal operators and the ILWU are weighing a proposal that would allow terminals to open their gates at 6 a.m., a move that has the support of truckers.

Three importer groups have sent a joint letter to the Biden administration calling on the White House to intervene in West Coast labor talks in order to avoid further stressing the US supply chain.

Brooklyn marine terminal operator Red Hook Container Terminal lost its bid to collect a $13 million demurrage bill that it claimed was due from an ocean carrier under a Federal Maritime Commission tariff.