Port News

Key ports in Asia are closely watching the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns in China and taking steps to ensure their gateways don’t begin to suffer congestion and delays as a result.

Work on the second phase of the JNPT project was due to begin in December 2019, but slipped to 2022 due to COVID-linked disruption and project approval delays.

A coming import surge composed of early back-to-school and peak season merchandise and pent-up shipments from Shanghai has ports and terminal operators in Los Angeles and Long Beach concerned about another summer meltdown.

The US Maritime Administration has signed off on Long Beach’s plan to develop a $1.5 billion on-dock rail facility that the port hopes will be used to move one-third of its container volumes.

The International Longshoremen’s Association alleges that agreements for marine terminal operations at Savannah and Charleston are anti-competitive.

While Shanghai port remains operational, the severe shortage of trucking capacity means the port is slowly being filled with import cargo that cannot be cleared, and widespread factory closures will likely hit export volumes.

Ocean carriers say they have swept more of the empty containers that have plagued truckers who have had to make extra trips further away from ports to store the boxes.

After reaching its maximum capacity last year, the Port of Salalah is looking to add roughly 1.5 million TEU of annual handling capacity through equipment purchases and a potential berth expansion.

California’s seaports are taking a long-term view to increase cargo velocity and cut transportation costs via a massive — and costly — public-private initiative to develop inland port hubs.

The sharp growth in container volumes at the ports of Houston and Mobile is spurring increasing demand to move freight via rail as truckers hit the limit on how much they can handle.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has told the CEOs of the western US railroads to address the problem of rising rail container dwell times in Los Angeles-Long Beach that is contributing to terminal congestion at the largest gateway in the country.

Exactly one month before the start of contract talks between West Coast employers and the ILWU, the union is claiming that a 2008 deal between the two sides has been violated at Terminal 5 in Seattle, a foreboding sign for those hoping this year’s negotiations would go smoothly.

Officials at the busiest ports in the southeast US believe import volumes will grow through the summer, meaning vessels will continue to anchor outside the major gateways.

Veteran port executive Bethann Rooney will become the next director of the Port of New York and New Jersey upon next month’s departure of Sam Ruda.

The National Labor Relations Board said it will hold an election for longshore union representation for Caribbean specialist Tropical Shipping at the Port of Palm Beach.

The Montreal Port Authority is partnering with Canadian National Railway to develop intermodal service to the port’s proposed Contrecoeur container terminal.

Reduced trucking capacity in Shanghai and the closure of factories and warehouses there have caused some ocean freight to be diverted, with Ningbo, Qingdao, and Tianjin topping the list of alternative ports.

Forecasting strong import growth this summer, US retailers warn ports of the urgency they face in addressing port-related supply chain bottlenecks.

If California ports are going to survive a second consecutive summer of congestion, shippers and their truckers must begin using newly created inland sites for temporary container storage even if those facilities are 50 miles from the water, port officials say.

Truckers working the Port of New York and New Jersey say they are not always being paid enough for increasingly longer trips away from the port to deliver empty containers.

Analysts worry that a lack of long-term cargo growth in the Arabian Gulf could result in large amounts of unused capacity at the competing ports of Jebel Ali in Dubai and Khalifa in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Maersk and GCT New York have settled a lawsuit over the switch of three vessel services to APM Terminals that GCT alleged was a breach of contract.

Carriers and forwarders say Shanghai will be hit by a raft of blank sailings through early May amid a now-indefinite COVID lockdown, while carriers are also implementing ad hoc omissions at the world’s busiest container port.

The state of Pennsylvania said it will extend for another year an incentive program aimed at drawing ocean carriers to offload cargo at the Port of Philadelphia.

The Panama Canal Authority is proposing a new tolling plan that would assess the first fees on empty containers returning from North America to Asia.

Proceeds from a clean truck fee launched Friday at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will go toward trucker subsidies and charging infrastructure needed to deploy a zero-emission drayage fleet.

Through its acquisition of Ceres container terminal, PSA can make better use of its other terminal in Halifax, the South End Container Terminal, or the Atlantic Hub, which is capable of handling mega-ships.

A report from McKinsey & Co. says that ocean freight rates will only return to pre-COVID-19 levels if US demand for consumer goods slows and port congestion clears.

Sources close to West Coast labor negotiations say any result is possible — from a contract getting signed with little to no disruption to a meltdown lasting months to any scenario in between.

US port executives have told the Federal Maritime Commission that additional information about whose containers are on their docks would go a long way toward clearing congestion.

The pending talks come amid fears from shippers that an impasse could result in further disruption in a market that can ill afford it, with some cargo owners already shifting volumes to the East and Gulf coasts.

The Port of Savannah has received more than half a billion dollars to grow its container and ro-ro capacity and provide options to importers and exporters to relieve pressure on the South Atlantic Chassis Pool.

The Port of Mobile, CSX, and Norfolk Southern have asked that Amtrak be brought to mediation in its year-long petition to resume a passenger rail service along the US Gulf Coast.

Carriers said while Shanghai’s main container terminals at Yangshan and Waigaoqiao remain open, many depots and warehouses are shut, and trucking is severely curtailed.

The Port of Vancouver CEO issues an urgent plea for development of more terminal capacity on Canada’s West Coast, but terminal operator GCT Canada says conditions are not as dire as the port chief claims.

The US Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a New Jersey law that would allow the state to exit the bi-state police agency charged with investigating criminal activity among longshore labor at the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Ports on the East and Gulf coasts have increased their share of Asian imports to record levels as shippers and carriers mitigate the risks of West Coast port congestion and potential disruption from upcoming longshore contract negotiations.

MSC has deployed an ad-hoc vessel between India’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust and Mundra Port in a bid to connect shipments hit by vessel skips or schedule changes.

Analysts agree ports in the Middle East have far more capacity than they need to service current volumes, but opinions are split as to whether demand will eventually catch up to capacity.

A severe shortage of container trucks at Colombo is the latest pain point for shippers on the Indian subcontinent.