Top 25 North American Ports

Three Mexican ports rose in the Journal of Commerce’s 2023 rankings, with the moves driven by volume growth coming from Asia inputs amid a nearshoring push in the US.

The West Coast continues to lose discretionary cargo to the East and Gulf coasts as shippers seek to avoid the type of disruption that has been occurring in Southern California of late linked to ongoing labor negotiations.

Only four of the JOC Top 25 North American Container Ports handled fewer imports in 2021, but growth at major West Coast gateways lagged that of their East Coast competitors, resulting in a shift in market share.

The six busiest North American ports eked out gains in import market share during 2020 thanks to the surge in inbound container volumes at the biggest gateways.

The years-long market share bleed from North America’s traditional West Coast container gateways continued in 2019, with Savannah, Houston and Prince Rupert the main beneficiaries.

Thanks to the country’s strong manufacturing sector and reasonable economic growth, the increase in cargo handled by Mexico’s ports outpaced that of both the US and Canada in 2018.

With 12 container terminals handling more than 16 million TEU per year, including 30,000 gate moves per day, Los Angeles-Long Beach is the nation's most complex port environment.

A passel of newly finished and ongoing projects aim to smooth the trucking of cargo in the Northeast US.

Can Mexico’s highways, railways, and related systems improve to handle higher trade volumes?

Eastbound trans-Pacific spot rates fell for the fourth straight week.

North American ports are implementing extended hours, and a major factor in starting the programs is incontrovertible night trucker demand.

The terminal operator at the Port of New York and New Jersey is implementing several measures after a month of longer-than-reasonable turn times for truckers.

The terminal, which does not normally process trucks and containers on the weekend, opened the gates Saturday from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. and plans to do so every Saturday until the end of the year. Furthermore, the first Saturday’s turn time reduction was substantial.

The port said it is working with Maher Terminals and Port Newark Container Terminal, the two terminals in the port that use straddle carriers, to create a vehicle that would be programmed to recharge itself after making a certain number of container moves.

The new ILWU president and his team are certified and now face the challenge of rebuilding the image of West Coast ports for labor reliability, as BCOs still remember the labor disruptions of 2002 and 2014-2015.

“This is the reality today. We must focus on service levels to make sure terminals are fluid,” Steve Balaski, senior business development manager for containers at the Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma, told the recent Western Cargo Conference of freight forwarders and customs brokers.

PierPass, the oldest extended-gates program in North America, was launched in 2005 to increase throughput capacity at the largest US port complex while diverting a sizable portion of the truck traffic from the peak daytime hours in order to relieve traffic congestion on local freeways and roads.

In the decade ahead, the Port of New York and New Jersey will face intensifying competition — from multiple ports — for discretionary cargo. With the authority’s head of seaport departing, the moment requires the hiring of a leader with in-depth knowledge and experience overseeing container cargo moves through a complex, multimodal system.

Dwell times at Vancouver rail facilities are approaching last winter’s levels, when port congestion was the worst in years, but terminal operators say the factors driving the current delays are not a harbinger.

Tuesday’s job actions prompted an exchange of charges among the parties. The current round of picketing that began on Monday is expected to continue at least through Wednesday.

The Port of New York and New Jersey is looking for ways to increase the storage space for empty rail cars to prevent shortages as discretionary cargo volumes rise.

The port and government officials have created an advisory committee, called the North Atlantic Marine Highway Alliance, to stimulate barge use and reduce truck traffic and the pollution and congestion it creates.

Justice for Port Drivers, a Teamsters-sponsored group that has promoted picketing and other job actions over the past five years, will participate in job actions at the ports, two motor carrier facilities, warehouses, and rail yards beginning Monday morning.

Further, two key decision-makers, one each from the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach, agreed that the early building of peak-season inventory this summer will be followed by slower growth in the fourth quarter of the year.

The addition of Milestone Equipment Holdings to the OPEN Choice Equipment Agreement-North East pool would take the pool a step closer to a pool of chassis from several providers that would be “interoperable,” meaning that truckers could pick up or drop off chassis from more than one provider at one or more locations.

Set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2019, the bill will discourage retailers and other shippers from contracting with the companies that misclassify drivers by making the beneficial cargo owners jointly liable for any fines assessed on those operators.

The peak season on the US East Coast in the weeks ahead could provide a test regarding whether the Port of New York and New Jersey can handle the increased volume and surges in activity generated by mega-ships.

Vancouver, Canada’s largest container port, until now has been limited in its capacity to grow by a lack of surge capacity at its rail operations, which serve eastern Canada and the US Midwest.

It is one of the ironies of container shipping. While the container may be one of the world’s greatest universal standards, creating untold benefits to trade and prosperity, the process of standardization around the movement of the container remains woefully incomplete.

However, analysts and stakeholders say shippers should not focus on the rate drop, but rather, they should prepare for unprecedented turmoil in the eastbound Pacific that is affecting cargo loading at Asian ports and delivery and storage in the United States.

The future looks bright in Savannah for beneficial cargo owners. Volume is increasing, market share is growing, and Georgia Ports Authority officials have a strong vision — including a bold TEU goal — to continue the upward momentum by expanding services and fixing its shortcomings to keep its place as the top port in the US Southeast.

Marine terminals, rail ramps, and distribution facilities provide ideal opportunities for the use of autonomous vehicles.

The move by TraPac provides additional evidence regarding the North American port trend to extend terminal gate hours to accommodate rising volume.

Ocean carriers plan October blank sailings even as they introduce extra-loader vessels to handle an import surge in September.

Molly Campbell, who joined the authority as head of the ports in July 2015, will leave on Oct. 26, departing as the nation’s third-largest port is seeing growing cargo volumes and more mega-ships.

The key to the top-tier ports’ dominant share of Asian imports is that ocean carriers have chosen the four gateways as the first call inbound on their services from Asia. And that ensures that retailers and other large importers receive what they value most.

Perhaps nowhere in the world, save India, is a critical mass of demand and resources coming together to produce a more-promising trade future than in Mexico. But to maintain that take-off status, Mexico will have to solve major infrastructure shortcomings, as well as address longstanding trade security issues.

Roll-on, roll-off cargo flowed smoothly through US ports during the first half of 2018, and the involved ports are moving forward with planned, needed investments. Further, the immediate years ahead look promising, provided the trade tension winds die down.

A grant, for two projects, reflects the ongoing effort by the Port of New York and New Jersey, the East Coast’s largest port, to boost the use of barges and reduce the volume of trucks on roads in and around the port area, curbing pollution.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance argues the market share loss is due to cheaper intermodal rail rates, but Prince Rupert says that is not the case — that two other factors are driving its value proposition.