Port News

Carriers working Indian ports say they have been working to raise their service levels in tandem with the swings in demand since the second half of 2020, propelled by elevated sourcing trends from the US and Europe.

Dole will begin a new weekly container service to Port Tampa Bay that will carry its own cargo and provide additional capacity to other shippers to and from Central America.

Ripple effects from the severe congestion choking Yantian terminals will be felt for weeks as shippers struggle to deal with the huge and growing backlog of containers.

Two more carriers follow Zim in suspending some trans-Pacific calls in Oakland until congestion issues and vessel bunching are eased.

Container lines are adding more alternatives to shipping through congested Yantian Container International Termina, as analysts and forwarders warn of another surge in spot container rate levels.

Drayage capacity from Southeastern US ports is so low right now that ocean carriers, NVOCCs, and shippers are scouring to locate small truck carriers on the spot market and paying extra to get their loads hauled.

A deal to acquire a stake in Hamburg’s Tollerort container terminal would expand the European presence of Cosco Shipping Ports, China’s largest terminals company.

Container lines are diverting more cargo away from Yantian, as expectations of when the port will be able to recover after a COVID-19 breakout extend to two weeks.

The Port of Virginia believes two milestones will put them on firm footing to become the deepest port on the US East by late 2023 or early 2024.

After a COVID-19 outbreak, Yantian International Container Terminal on Monday began accepting export cargoes, but shipping executives say the congestion will take at least a week to clear.

Oakland and Seattle-Tacoma are scrambling to address mounting congestion problems as carriers add services there to circumvent even worse congestion in Los Angeles-Long Beach.

Carriers are dropping calls at second-tier Chinese ports as congestion at marine terminals builds and container services suffer delays due to ongoing woes at some clogged US and European ports.

After a rough six-week period following the paralyzing February snowstorm in Texas, intermodal terminals are operating with fewer delays in Dallas-Fort Worth, with chassis available and driver productivity bucking national trends.

Despite contract language allowing automation, the ILWU has increasingly come to see automation as an existential threat and a microcosm of the larger threat of robotics displacing human labor.

Refrigerated cargo and breakbulk specialty carrier SeacatLine plans to make a bi-weekly service between Costa Rica and Tampa Bay a weekly service with an additional vessel deployment.

CMA CGM’s decision to increase container vessel capacity from Southeast Asia stems from the increasing shift in import sourcing away from China and ability of East Coast ports to handle volumes.

Almost every performance indicator in Los Angeles-Long Beach is trending positively, but increasing rail container dwell times could threaten the terminals’ ability to handle peak season volumes if the backlog of rail containers isn’t moved soon.

Imports of photovoltaic cells used in solar power generation continue to reach new highs as the US developers plan to make major capacity additions over the next four years.

Drayage operators say they are raising rates and pay for drivers moving containers in and out of the Port of New York and New Jersey, but it’s not enough to make up for a loss of productivity during the prolonged surge in import volumes that began in August.

Total Terminals International informed the ILWU on Monday it intends to automate its Long Beach terminal, as the union urges port and city officials to consider the loss of jobs that results from automation.

An exodus of drayage drivers to the flatbed and dry van truckload sectors is further limiting already constrained capacity and equipment availability in key inland markets.

Most of India’s cargo gateways reopened Tuesday morning, but carriers tell JOC.com it will take them at least until the end of the week to clear the backlog of vessels that built up over the weekend.

Logistics software startup Splyc is using automation to tackle what it sees as a major issue in container logistics technology: the speed with which information is passed from one system to another.

Although US imports from Asia in April did not match the impressive volume recorded in March, it was nevertheless the busiest April on record and the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year import increases since last July.

The International Longshoremen’s Association is delaying a lawsuit against two ocean carriers over making calls at a nonunion Charleston terminal until the NLRB addresses whether the lawsuit violates federal labor law.

The LA-LB port complex is clearing out its cargo backlog, with the goal of the ports and terminal operators being to return to normal fluidity before the 2021 peak-shipping season begins in August.

Sealand Marine will add a stop in Wilmington on its Central American service beginning in June, adding more connections with Panama and introducing new services between North Carolina and Costa Rica.

Two major trucking groups in the port of New York and New Jersey said their members’ increasing frustration with empty returns is forcing them to quit a port efficiency task force.

Maersk says labor scarcity in India amid COVID-19 lockdowns – particularly truck drivers – has begun to crimp cargo flow out of some port and inland locations even as demand remains relatively steady.

New legislation introduced in Congress would make projects that reduce the carbon footprint of port operations eligible for grants within the Maritime Administration’s Port Infrastructure Development Program.

Stakeholders say fewer working hours during the month of Ramadan and ongoing COVID-19-linked lockdowns have lowered productivity at Chittagong, which has created a vessel queue.

APM Terminals said it would take part in studies to determine the viability of a greenfield container terminal south of New Orleans that would handle 22,000-TEU ships.

The port of Savannah is building what will be one of the first cross-dock facility within a US container port, accelerating Georgia Ports Authority’s attempt to attract transloaded cargo away from Southern California.

The decision by the Ocean Alliance to hold off on calling the newly opened Leatherman terminal is a sign the dispute between South Carolina and the International Longshore Association over the crane and yard work being handled by non-union state employees is heating up.

Marine terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey are taking steps that will allow them to handle more containers and deliver them more quickly to truckers as a nine-month deluge in US imports looks set to continue.

A new index, jointly created by the World Bank and IHS Markit, shows that Asian container ports are the most efficient as ports in various regions struggle with high levels of congestion.

An ongoing dispute between longshore labor and employers in the port of Charleston, South Carolina, in the wake of the now-ended strike in Montreal, could pale in comparison to a looming confrontation over terminal automation when negotiations begin on a new US West Coast contract next year.

The Port of Charleston plans to form its own proprietary chassis pool by May 2022, citing an inability to bring new, safer chassis into the existing South Atlantic Chassis Pool.

Forced arbitration through a back-to-work order that ended a five-day strike lays the groundwork to help Port of Montreal shield itself from growing competition from eastern US and Canadian ports.

Container shipping leaders in India generally hold the view that the country’s abolition of cabotage restrictions on coastal transportation has been a growth driver for containerized trade there.