Port News

The Jacksonville Port Authority (Jaxport) has secured the final piece of the funding pie needed to deepen the port’s main harbor to 47 feet to Blount Island, a critical step toward handling more post-Panamax vessels in the trans-Pacific trade.

Equipment providers and terminal operators say excessive container and chassis dwell times at import warehouses in Southern California are the main culprit in recent congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

Congestion at the UK’s busiest port has prompted CMA CGM to impose a surcharge on all Asian imports and exports through the gateway.

The balance of trade in and out of India has shifted in favor of exports as the country begins to recover from the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lawyers representing ocean carriers, OCEMA, and CCM have asked the FMC to dismiss ATA’s complaint into chassis, arguing the regulatory body lacks jurisdiction and only cargo owners can bring such a case.

The intensity of the Asia import surge is such that executives believe a return-to-normal container flow might still take months given how out of balance the system has already become in recent weeks.

The Port of Virginia’s Virginia International Gateway (VIG) terminal has resumed Saturday gate hours through Nov. 21 after suspending weekend service in mid-March at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The UK’s busiest container port is being overwhelmed by peak season volume, staff shortages, and problems with its truck booking system, with forwarders feeling the effects of a ban on empty container drop-offs.

A&R Logistics has opened a new resin packaging plant in South Carolina two months ahead of schedule, causing port officials to be bullish about resin exports in 2021.

Container volume in Savannah set a new monthly record in August, a result port officials didn’t anticipate but attribute to US consumer demand for online shopping and home improvement goods.

Funds from the US Department of Transportation’s grant program will assist the ports of Charleston and Everett and Anchorage’s airport finance various improvement projects.

While the chief factor behind current excessive container backups at Mundra has been adverse weather, there have also been trade concerns regarding the private handler prioritizing some bulk movement over containerized freight.

A widening project will allow bi-directional traffic along the channel leading into Guangzhou’s Nansha container terminal, reducing the time ships have to wait for a berth window.

A deal to build and operate a transload and distribution facility in Vancouver advances CP’s efforts to deepen its presence at its sole western Canadian port gateway, and Maersk’s evolution into a so-called global integrator by expanding its reach beyond port-to-port shipping.

The Port of New Orleans was halting operations Monday ahead of Hurricane Sally, due to make landfall in southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday.

Container delays at Sydney have been caused by industrial action by dock workers, exacerbated by berth congestion and bad weather at Port Botany. Photo credit: Shutterstock.com.

Given their lower handling costs and intermodal rail rates, Vancouver and Prince Rupert are poised to grab additional market share from US West Coast ports as they add capacity through expansion projects.

A dislocation of railcars, exacerbated by railroads serving a surge of imports at Western Canadian ports, and constrained marine terminal space in Eastern Canada has slowed the ability of marine terminals to clear a backlog caused by recent strikes.

Data shows that whether it is for e-commerce or inventory restocking, importers and their forwarders and carrier partners are favoring Southern California, and there’re plenty of reasons for Los Angeles-Long Beach to hold that oft-begrudging allure among e-tailers.

Larger container ships calling Japanese ports has led carriers to alter port rotations to avoid vessels bunching together, with some box ships being forced to depart earlier than planned to prevent delays and congestion.

The Port of Brownsville is "headed for a record year" in wind energy cargo, according to port officials, a development that is helping to offset the loss of volume related to three LNG export projects currently on hold owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Port Freeport, Texas, in August opened 20 newly paved acres for handling growing roll-on, roll-off (ro-ro) cargo from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

The Port of Los Angeles Thursday unveiled a new dashboard that will give port customers and stakeholders shipment information three weeks in advance of vessel arrival.

The neighboring ports of Beaumont and Port Arthur in eastern Texas only suffered minor damage from the category 4 Hurricane Laura, but both have seen cargo volume decline in the first half of 2020 as the COVID-19 recession put pressure on oil pricing, prompting a pullback in oil and gas capital projects.

Surge of time-sensitive merchandise in Los Angeles and Long Beach, coupled with persistent operational problems, caused turn times to increase in August.

With month-long rail issues at Vancouver and Prince Rupert continuing, beneficial cargo owners shipping through the Canadian ports must now contend with vessel arrival delays of as much as two weeks.

Plaquemines’ grand ambition for a container terminal comes as other Gulf Coast ports are vying to host larger vessels and offer easier access to the US Midwest.

Both of Houston’s container terminals were shut for two days this week as a precaution as Hurricane Laura approached the Gulf Coast.

Truckers and cargo owners are urging the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to incentivize ocean carriers to share more shipment information earlier to improve cargo velocity in Southern California.

The Los Angeles–Long Beach gateway’s market share increased in July as retailers focused just-in-time shipments through Southern California, a trend that is expected to continue through September.

The availability of IMO-compliant 0.5 percent sulfur fuel oil in Bangladesh’s main port will help lower costs for carriers, particularly the feeder operators that work vessels calling from major regional hubs.

Port authorities in the US Southeast are closely monitoring terminal fluidity as volume picks up, and making adjustments to ensure cargo owners don’t see service degrade.

Leaders from the Maritime Employers Association and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) say they are confident they can agree to a new contract before the truce expires in March 2021.

Flagging volumes to and from China trade dragged down first-half throughput at Europe’s third-busiest container port, and Hamburg does not expect volume to reach pre-COVID-19 levels anytime soon.

A chassis dispute between trucking executives and ocean carriers has reached an impasse, spurring American Trucking Associations to seek a resolution from the US Federal Maritime Commission.

DP World subsidiary Unifeeder ISC has agreed to purchase three business units of the Mumbai-based Transworld Group, including the short-sea and transhipment carrier Shreyas Shipping and the forwarder Avana Logistek.

The federal government shows no signs of intervening in the Montreal strike, which has caused carriers to send several vessels to the alternative ports of Halifax and Saint John.

Fewer sailings in the first half of the year as carriers canceled capacity have cut the volume of Europe’s imports, but the bigger ships deployed on the trades from Asia continue to record huge call sizes.

Even as the number of container ship calls tumbled due to large-scale carrier sailing cancelations, the COVID-19 disruption became a thorn in the side of key Indian terminals striving to build on efficiency momentum.

Asian gateways continued to increase their dominant share of the global port market in 2019, handling nearly 80 percent of the total throughput of the top 50 container ports worldwide.