Marine terminals

While some customers worry rail container dwell times could worsen, port stakeholders say they are accustomed to the ebb and flow and can manage the recent import surge.

Canada’s western ports have little capacity to handle idled intermodal cargo should railroad workers strike, but eastern ports have more space to manage any delays.

Many European shippers are locked into the peak season that will extend the high volume of Asian imports through the third quarter despite the early movement of orders to mitigate disruption from the longer Red Sea routing.

Container lines calling in Tacoma say the congestion is being caused by a surge in import volumes and a shortage of rail cars that is likely to last at least through August.

Maritime employers say they are offering dockworkers along the East and Gulf coasts a better deal than the one received by their West Coast counterparts last year, but the union says the proposal is inadequate.

The $83 million project, which took two years to complete, adds another 455,000 TEUs of annual on-dock rail capacity at NIT.

The disclosure of a 76% wage increase proposal comes as ILA sent a 60-day notice to the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) warning that the union is prepared to strike if a new labor deal is not signed before the current contract’s Sept. 30 expiration.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is looking to create more space for container operations with a multi-year project to move dry bulk operations from one port area to another.

The port was able to clear all the recently anchored vessels, helped by a temporary reopening of all Wando Welch’s berths last week amid a 10-day pause in project work.

It was only when assets stopped circulating that ocean carrier profits took off, thanks to containers stranded on idle ships that lined up outside of congested ports during the worst of the pandemic disruption.

The Biden administration’s attempts to build a homegrown crane industry due to cybersecurity concerns drew little interest from the National Association of Waterfront Employers, which doesn’t see a threat from Chinese-made cranes.

The agency’s detention and demurrage rules are still unclear as to billing those charges to truckers, according to challenges put forth by ocean carriers.

The International Longshoremen’s Association said it has called off talks for a new six-year labor agreement due to automation efforts at Maersk-operated marine terminals.

Carriers and forwarders said the average berthing delay is three to five days at Southeast Asia’s leading container gateway, but HMM and ONE said they are experiencing more than that.

The move by the port’s Board of Commissioners opens the door to the modernization of the Everport-operated Ben E. Nutter Terminal so the 90-acre facility can accommodate post-Panamax ships and potentially expand.

While the lower dwells are promising, some trucking and logistics executives say terminal operators in Los Angeles and Long Beach have not yet fully adjusted to the rise in import volumes, especially considering projections for an early start to peak shipping season.

Yusen Terminals in Los Angeles is already holding twice its normal inventory of rail containers and is draying some of the boxes to a near-dock storage yard to prevent the backlog from interfering with cargo handling operations.

The port said it was not able to secure an operator for its marine terminal, which was critical to securing further state aid to run the port through the rest of 2024.

The $11 million program that seeks to increase schedule reliability and volumes comes as the Seattle-Tacoma gateway saw its share of US imports from Asia decline year over year in February.

The import strength goes beyond restocking, showing the impact of a recovery in housing and the US manufacturing resurgence, writes Peter Tirschwell.

Some of the 18 container ships that were due to arrive at the now-closed Port of Baltimore over the next couple of weeks are now scheduled for new calls at New Jersey, Norfolk and Philadelphia.

With the fifth-largest container port on the US East Coast now effectively isolated from waterborne traffic, the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after it was struck by a container ship will, at least temporarily, reconfigure the region’s supply chain.

The purchase of an industrial site next to the terminal is part of Charleston’s plan to allow the facility to handle container ships that are double the size of the vessels it can currently accommodate.

Marine terminals, truckers and warehouse operators say the state must be mindful of the large costs and ambitious deadlines it is imposing on the freight transportation sectors to reduce emissions.

Large terminal operators and container lines have backed an effort to build a common digital platform, which this week lured three global port operators into its network.

The operator of Oakland’s largest container terminal said it will take about two weeks to clear the vessel backlog at Oakland International Container Terminal.

Stephen Hennessey joined PMA in 2004 after holding management positions in the shipping and trucking industries, including with Sea-Land Service, Roadway Express and Horizon Lines.

Whenever container shipping experiences an upheaval in the alliance structure, the wind-down period from announcement to departure and then to the reforming of new alliances can be bumpy, writes industry veteran Patrick Burgoyne.

While the union said industrial action has ended, the disruption caused by work stoppages that lasted hours and days at a time will take weeks to wind down.

With existing capacity utilization at 70%, Los Angeles and Long Beach have probably delayed until the early 2030s the likelihood of experiencing pandemic-era congestion again, according to marine terminal engineers.

Southeast ports are gearing up to handle more freight as supply chains move further away from China.

The disruption has worsened since last month after the union doubled the weekly work stoppages from around 24 hours to up to 48 hours at DP World’s terminals.

Geopolitics, drought and longshore labor are creating substantial tailwinds that could, at least in the near term, dramatically boost West Coast market share, particularly Los Angeles and Long Beach, writes analyst Larry Gross.

Although they were unable to completely escape last year’s downturn, ports in the region recorded import declines that were well below the national average.

The ports will be aided by continued transit constraints at the Panama Canal, potentially testy longshore negotiations on the East and Gulf coasts, and terminals that are as fluid as they have been since before the pandemic.

The port wants to dig to a 55-foot depth because an increasing number of vessels calling are testing the current capacity of its shipping channels.

A strong Black Friday and Cyber Monday, coupled with rosy sales expectations, are spurring US retailers to boost their import forecasts for early 2024, according to the National Retail Federation.

Container shipping is hardly the only industry to feel the impact of organized labor’s bargaining power, nor is it unique in dealing with heightened geopolitical flashpoints or regulatory pressures tied to decarbonization, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

It’s looking like 2024 will follow a familiar script for container shipping, with ocean carriers facing down market challenges by taking action that typically disadvantages their customers, writes Peter Tirschwell.

Shippers who have built East and Gulf coast routings into their supply chains are taking no chances, raising the need for contingency plans in discussions with carriers and NVOs ahead of 2024 contract renewals.