<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Wah Kwong Shipping Group Ltd. is joining forces with a local entrepreneur to take the largest single</div>

Wah Kwong Shipping Group Ltd. is joining forces with a local entrepreneur to take the largest single

<div>Wah Kwong Shipping Group Ltd. is joining forces with a local entrepreneur to take the largest single stake in a consortium developing a port in the nearby Portuguese enclave of Macao.The new joint venture, called Marben Corp., is buying out a 35 percent share in the project now held by the Portuguese line Soponata, Wah Kwong director George Chao said.His partner is Stanley Ho, whose Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau holds the franchises for the territory's casinos.The Macauport consortium, which includes other Portuguese and local interests, is enlarging a deepwater port off Coloane Island, one of two making...

Wah Kwong Shipping Group Ltd. is joining forces with a local entrepreneur to take the largest single stake in a consortium developing a port in the nearby Portuguese enclave of Macao. The new joint venture, called Marben Corp., is buying out a 35 percent share in the project now held by the Portuguese line Soponata, Wah Kwong director George Chao said.His partner is Stanley Ho, whose Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau holds the franchises for the territory's casinos. The Macauport consortium, which includes other Portuguese and local interests, is enlarging a deepwater port off Coloane Island, one of two making up Macao. "The first stage of the container complex should be complete by the end of this year," Mr Chao told The Journal of Commerce. It is intended to have capacity for the equivalent of 1 million 20-foot boxes a year, compared with 120,000 now. Stage one will include a nine-acre container terminal with two 1,000-foot quays and a 5,300-square-foot unloading area. The second phase involves land reclamation for and construction of a 20- acre oil terminal. Mr. Chao said initial work on that should be complete in about August of next year. The terminal itself isn't likely to be operational for three years. The first stages of the container and oil terminals are estimated to cost HK$300 million (US$39 million). Unlike Hong Kong, Macao is not a colony. It is described as Chinese territory administered by Portugal, something like a hotel service contract, and will return to Chinese sovereignty in 1999. Macao is at present little more than a pleasure destination for weekend visitors from Hong Kong seeking casino gambling, good food and a less-hectic environment. It is about an hour from Hong Kong by ferry. Commerce hasn't figured much in Macao's development, but there are some in Hong Kong and southern China who feel it has opportunity. "Some 5 percent of cargoes in Hong Kong are transshipments to Macao," Mr. Chao said. "There is a need for a container terminal and regular feeder service." He also believes Macao could be developed as a light-industrial base. Hong Kong's industry is working at near capacity, and many companies are shifting work into China where labor and land are cheaper and more readily available. "Wah Kwong is a shipping company, and we are always looking into shipping- related business," Mr. Chao said. "The container and oil terminals fit with our strategic and core businesses." He describes the move as "a good diversification" without straying too far from Wah Kwong's base. "People buy our shares as a shipping company. They don't want to see us in the property or food business." Wah Kwong will provide feeder services to and from the new Macao port, and possibly into other areas of China, Mr. Chao said. Using it as an overspill area from Hong Kong, which is handling about all the cargo it can, doesn't seem an immediate possibility. The draft in Macao waters is about 13 feet, not nearly enough for modern boxships.

Maritime

WAH KWONG GETS INVOLVED IN MACAO BOXPORT VENTURE

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The port’s Cast and Racine terminals remained open to vessels during the five-month strike by clerical staff, which began last September.</div>

The port’s Cast and Racine terminals remained open to vessels during the five-month strike by clerical staff, which began last September.

Feature image

<div class="phx-topic">Montreal Gateway Terminals (MGT) has signed a new collective bargaining agreement with its unionized clerical workers, ending a five-month strike at the port’s largest terminal operator. MGT on Monday confirmed in a statement to the Journal of Commerce that it signed a new contract with Local 4317 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), without offering further details about the agreement. CUPE could not be reached for comment. Last September, 32 transportation agents from Local 4317 filed a strike notice with MGT, which owns the Cast and Racine terminals. The previous four-year contract with the local expired at the end of 2024. An update from Kuehne + Nagel said the new contract would cover a term of eight years and that a “smooth transition to regular operations, including the gradual reinstatement of standard 17-hour truck gate service,” was expected. CUPE last year said Local 4317 went on strike after mediation and conciliation talks had failed. A source familiar with the matter said the clerical jobs were handled by management during the strike, which allowed vessel operations to continue. CUPE said in a statement last year that the union and MGT failed to come to terms on “minimum operating requirements” under a new contract. The previous collective bargaining agreement called for MGT to have a certain number of transportation agents at the terminals, even during holidays and weekends and even if no vessel operations occurred. It was not clear what staffing levels MGT will be required to maintain under the new contract. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com. </div>

Montreal Gateway Terminals (MGT) has signed a new collective bargaining agreement with its unionized clerical workers, ending a five-month strike at the port’s largest terminal operator. MGT on Monday confirmed in a statement to the Journal of Commerce that it signed a new contract with Local 4317 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), without offering further details about the agreement. CUPE could not be reached for comment. Last September, 32 transportation agents from Local 4317 filed a strike notice with MGT, which owns the Cast and Racine terminals. The previous four-year contract with the local expired at the end of 2024. An update from Kuehne + Nagel said the new contract would cover a term of eight years and that a “smooth transition to regular operations, including the gradual reinstatement of standard 17-hour truck gate service,” was expected. CUPE last year said Local 4317 went on strike after mediation and conciliation talks had failed. A source familiar with the matter said the clerical jobs were handled by management during the strike, which allowed vessel operations to continue. CUPE said in a statement last year that the union and MGT failed to come to terms on “minimum operating requirements” under a new contract. The previous collective bargaining agreement called for MGT to have a certain number of transportation agents at the terminals, even during holidays and weekends and even if no vessel operations occurred. It was not clear what staffing levels MGT will be required to maintain under the new contract. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com.

Port News

North American ports

Longshore labor

Montreal terminal operator signs deal with striking office workers

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Under the US Customs and Border Protection’s proposal, shippers will not have to sue the administration for refunds of the IEEPA tariffs and will receive the monies owed as a single payment.</div>

Under the US Customs and Border Protection’s proposal, shippers will not have to sue the administration for refunds of the IEEPA tariffs and will receive the monies owed as a single payment.

<div class="phx-topic">US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will need 45 days to set up the process for importers to begin receiving refunds for tariffs charged under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). But those shippers will not have to sue the administration for relief, according to a declaration filed with US Court of International Trade (CIT). “This new process will require minimal submission from importers,” CBP said in the filing, made Friday. “It will also minimize errors by ensuring accurate IEEPA refund calculations through system validations and allowing for a review period for CBP to resolve any discrepancies with the importer and to confirm no other outstanding enforcement issues or no revenue is owed.” CIT earlier in the week ordered CBP to immediately refund the estimated $166 billion in IEEPA tariffs paid by shippers before the US Supreme Court <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/us-supreme-court-rules-against-trump-in-critical-ieepa-tariff-case-6173568">ruled President Donald Trump did not have the authority to impose them</a>. Refund payments will also include interest, which would cost the US government an additional $23 million for each day that passes prior to payment, according to an estimate from the CATO Institute. However, because “existing administrative procedures and technology are not well-suited to a task of this scale,” it would have taken more than 4 million hours for agency workers to manually examine shipment documentation to determine refund amounts, CBP said in the filing. Crucially, the process being set up by CBP “would spare the hundreds of thousands of small businesses who are owed refunds from having to litigate to obtain them,” Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer of the US Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement Friday. As of March 4, more than 2,000 importers had already filed lawsuits with CIT seeking refunds since the Feb. 20 Supreme Court ruling. Shippers would receive the refund as a single payment, regardless of how many shipments or different cargoes they imported, according to the filing. CBP estimates there are more than 330,000 importers eligible for refunds on more than 53 million customs entries. Contact Benjamin Meyer at <a href="mailto:benjamin.meyer@spglobal.com">benjamin.meyer@spglobal.com.</a></div>

US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will need 45 days to set up the process for importers to begin receiving refunds for tariffs charged under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). But those shippers will not have to sue the administration for relief, according to a declaration filed with US Court of International Trade (CIT). “This new process will require minimal submission from importers,” CBP said in the filing, made Friday. “It will also minimize errors by ensuring accurate IEEPA refund calculations through system validations and allowing for a review period for CBP to resolve any discrepancies with the importer and to confirm no other outstanding enforcement issues or no revenue is owed.” CIT earlier in the week ordered CBP to immediately refund the estimated $166 billion in IEEPA tariffs paid by shippers before the US Supreme Court ruled President Donald Trump did not have the authority to impose them . Refund payments will also include interest, which would cost the US government an additional $23 million for each day that passes prior to payment, according to an estimate from the CATO Institute. However, because “existing administrative procedures and technology are not well-suited to a task of this scale,” it would have taken more than 4 million hours for agency workers to manually examine shipment documentation to determine refund amounts, CBP said in the filing. Crucially, the process being set up by CBP “would spare the hundreds of thousands of small businesses who are owed refunds from having to litigate to obtain them,” Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer of the US Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement Friday. As of March 4, more than 2,000 importers had already filed lawsuits with CIT seeking refunds since the Feb. 20 Supreme Court ruling. Shippers would receive the refund as a single payment, regardless of how many shipments or different cargoes they imported, according to the filing. CBP estimates there are more than 330,000 importers eligible for refunds on more than 53 million customs entries. Contact Benjamin Meyer at benjamin.meyer@spglobal.com.

Transport, Trade and Regulation News

Supply chain

Container Shipping News

CBP lays out initial tariff refund plan that requires ‘minimal’ work from importers

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Data generated within logistics software vendors is part of a web of information that helps shippers weigh service levels and inventory carrying costs against rate levels. </div>

Data generated within logistics software vendors is part of a web of information that helps shippers weigh service levels and inventory carrying costs against rate levels.

<div class="phx-topic">Importers beset by the imposition of now-overturned US tariffs are being asked by their companies to deliver supply chain cost savings that might offset the burden of those tariffs, and technology providers are lining up to help. That help can come in many forms, but principally in helping shippers benchmark ocean freight rate savings versus performance, weighing rate levels versus inventory carrying costs, and in helping establish capacity for new sourcing regions. Fabio Brocca, chief product officer at freight rate benchmarking analytics provider Xeneta, noted that the difference in transit time between the fastest and slowest carriers moving from China to the US West Coast is 13 days, but the price difference between the highest and lowest cost carrier is 10%. “So is 10% of your cost worth 13 days of transit time?,” Brocca said at the Journal of Commerce’s TPM26 conference in Long Beach last week. “That’s a decision for you to make. It’s impossible to predict what will happen next. The bigger problem is lack of transparency in data. You make procurement decisions that cost you millions of dollars.” Speaking during a conference session about how technology and data can facilitate cost cuts in international transportation, Brocca said shippers need tools that help them understand what a good short-term and long-term rate is, and what service levels align to those rates across hundreds of lanes, and often with carriers they’ve never worked with before. “We’ve seen shippers use our platform by picking up a phone and renegotiating a lane where [their price is outside the market rate],” he said. “But they also use it to see what the difference is between service level and cost.” <h3>Increased volatility </h3>The impetus for incorporating technology — whether rate benchmarking, visibility, or route planning and execution — has increased after years of intense volatility that have now become the norm, said Vizion CEO Kyle Henderson. “You have little gray swanlets popping up every day,” Henderson said during the TPM26 session, noting that highly regional or local impacts to supply chains are intermingled with large-scale events that impact all or most supply chains. “You can see them now because you have visibility and data, but there are more fires to deal with because you can see them, and they are all of different size and intensity,” he said. “It’s changed the mindset of our customers who need to be designing not only with reliability in mind but also with operations that can be responsive and with data backing up what they decided to do.” Henderson asserted that volatility is increasing exponentially, beyond just a function of more freight volume being moved, and that shippers who focus solely on reducing transportation costs are doomed to fall victim to an environment that is getting “more complex and less secure.” “We’ve all been living in a predictability bubble,” he said. “We’ve all been focused on reducing costs, but if you had to make a bet, would you choose the world is going to get less complex and more safe?” As example, Henderson noted the case of an apparel customer of Vizion, which provides visibility and business intelligence to shippers and third-party logistics providers, The apparel shipper wanted to do a performance evaluation of carriers it currently works with alongside those it hasn’t used before. The company ended up choosing a carrier that cut out two weeks in its total delivery time. “For this shipper, the rate wasn’t really the key consideration, because it was a comparable rate, but the inventory carrying cost was far more important,” Henderson said. He added that it can be tough for people in operational or procurement roles at importers to see the bigger picture of their cost structure “where they’re saving on their individual line item, but that might spike someone else’s line item.” <h3>Holistic view </h3>Martin Hubert, CEO of multimodal execution and planning software FreightGate, said companies with a formal head of supply chain are often better at weighing the various costs of transportation and sourcing than those where operations and procurement report into a finance department. Hubert said importers need to think holistically about the challenges they are currently facing, connecting routing decisions to sourcing decisions to figure out total landed cost but retaining flexibility after initial plans have been made. “What would happen if I source from this country or this country and then reevaluate it right before you make the booking, so you don’t get blindsided by some recent event or new tariff somebody invented?” he told TPM26. “The ability to have desk-level people being able to evaluate routing decisions is very important to not leaving money on the table.” While solutions providers are understandably focused on where artificial intelligence fits into the cost saving equation, Brocca said it has to be used in tandem with people and the knowledge they have that can’t be accessed by an AI model. “Our job as solutions providers is to simplify our customers’ lives,” he said. “AI is great at helping you prioritize certain initiatives and quantify this thing here versus this thing here. But the person ultimately needs to be making the decision.” Contact Eric Johnson at <a href="mailto:eric.johnson@spglobal.com">eric.johnson@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Importers beset by the imposition of now-overturned US tariffs are being asked by their companies to deliver supply chain cost savings that might offset the burden of those tariffs, and technology providers are lining up to help. That help can come in many forms, but principally in helping shippers benchmark ocean freight rate savings versus performance, weighing rate levels versus inventory carrying costs, and in helping establish capacity for new sourcing regions. Fabio Brocca, chief product officer at freight rate benchmarking analytics provider Xeneta, noted that the difference in transit time between the fastest and slowest carriers moving from China to the US West Coast is 13 days, but the price difference between the highest and lowest cost carrier is 10%. “So is 10% of your cost worth 13 days of transit time?,” Brocca said at the Journal of Commerce’s TPM26 conference in Long Beach last week. “That’s a decision for you to make. It’s impossible to predict what will happen next. The bigger problem is lack of transparency in data. You make procurement decisions that cost you millions of dollars.” Speaking during a conference session about how technology and data can facilitate cost cuts in international transportation, Brocca said shippers need tools that help them understand what a good short-term and long-term rate is, and what service levels align to those rates across hundreds of lanes, and often with carriers they’ve never worked with before. “We’ve seen shippers use our platform by picking up a phone and renegotiating a lane where [their price is outside the market rate],” he said. “But they also use it to see what the difference is between service level and cost.” Increased volatility The impetus for incorporating technology — whether rate benchmarking, visibility, or route planning and execution — has increased after years of intense volatility that have now become the norm, said Vizion CEO Kyle Henderson. “You have little gray swanlets popping up every day,” Henderson said during the TPM26 session, noting that highly regional or local impacts to supply chains are intermingled with large-scale events that impact all or most supply chains. “You can see them now because you have visibility and data, but there are more fires to deal with because you can see them, and they are all of different size and intensity,” he said. “It’s changed the mindset of our customers who need to be designing not only with reliability in mind but also with operations that can be responsive and with data backing up what they decided to do.” Henderson asserted that volatility is increasing exponentially, beyond just a function of more freight volume being moved, and that shippers who focus solely on reducing transportation costs are doomed to fall victim to an environment that is getting “more complex and less secure.” “We’ve all been living in a predictability bubble,” he said. “We’ve all been focused on reducing costs, but if you had to make a bet, would you choose the world is going to get less complex and more safe?” As example, Henderson noted the case of an apparel customer of Vizion, which provides visibility and business intelligence to shippers and third-party logistics providers, The apparel shipper wanted to do a performance evaluation of carriers it currently works with alongside those it hasn’t used before. The company ended up choosing a carrier that cut out two weeks in its total delivery time. “For this shipper, the rate wasn’t really the key consideration, because it was a comparable rate, but the inventory carrying cost was far more important,” Henderson said. He added that it can be tough for people in operational or procurement roles at importers to see the bigger picture of their cost structure “where they’re saving on their individual line item, but that might spike someone else’s line item.” Holistic view Martin Hubert, CEO of multimodal execution and planning software FreightGate, said companies with a formal head of supply chain are often better at weighing the various costs of transportation and sourcing than those where operations and procurement report into a finance department. Hubert said importers need to think holistically about the challenges they are currently facing, connecting routing decisions to sourcing decisions to figure out total landed cost but retaining flexibility after initial plans have been made. “What would happen if I source from this country or this country and then reevaluate it right before you make the booking, so you don’t get blindsided by some recent event or new tariff somebody invented?” he told TPM26. “The ability to have desk-level people being able to evaluate routing decisions is very important to not leaving money on the table.” While solutions providers are understandably focused on where artificial intelligence fits into the cost saving equation, Brocca said it has to be used in tandem with people and the knowledge they have that can’t be accessed by an AI model. “Our job as solutions providers is to simplify our customers’ lives,” he said. “AI is great at helping you prioritize certain initiatives and quantify this thing here versus this thing here. But the person ultimately needs to be making the decision.” Contact Eric Johnson at eric.johnson@spglobal.com .

Logistics Technology News

Tech vendors ready themselves to help importers wage cost reduction war

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">The Israel-based carrier said the volume declines were led by its cross-Suez and trans-Atlantic services, which dropped 13% and 10%, respectively, from 2024.</div>

The Israel-based carrier said the volume declines were led by its cross-Suez and trans-Atlantic services, which dropped 13% and 10%, respectively, from 2024.

<div class="phx-topic">Zim Integrated Shipping Services saw its container volumes in 2025 drop for the first time in two years, but managed to beat Wall Street estimates for its fourth-quarter earnings. The Israel-based ocean carrier said Monday it ended 2025 handling total volumes of 3.6 million TEUs, a 2.3% year-over-year drop and its first full-year decline since 2023. The declines were largely led by Zim’s cross-Suez and trans-Atlantic services, which dropped 13% and 10%, respectively, from 2024. Trans-Pacific business, which accounts for 43% of Zim’s volumes, fell 1.6%. The company’s intra-Asia and Latin America business were the standouts in 2025, posting gains of 4% and 2%, respectively. The average freight rate Zim saw during the fourth quarter was $1,333 per FEU, down 29% from a year earlier. Despite the drop, Zim reported fourth-quarter earnings of 32 cents per share, well above the consensus analyst estimate of a 52-cents-per-share loss, according to S&amp;P Global Capital IQ, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce. Fourth-quarter revenue of $1.48 billion came in about $50 million below analysts’ estimates. Zim, <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/hapag-lloyd-bolsters-fleet-with-42-billion-deal-to-acquire-zim-6170540">which is being acquired by Hapag-Lloyd</a>, said it would not provide guidance for 2026 nor host a conference call due to the pending acquisition. But Chief Executive Eli Glickman said in the carrier’s earnings statement that Zim expects “continued pressure on freight rates.” During 2025, Zim signed long-term charter agreements for 36 newbuild container ships with capacities between 3,000 TEUs and 12,000 TEUs. The newbuilds will provide a total of 250,000 TEUs in additional capacity, with the first deliveries expected in the second half of 2026. The carrier said it ended 2025 with a total of 115 container ships of 707,000 TEUs in total capacity. It expects 13 of those ships to roll off their charters this year, and another 17 in 2027. Contact Michael Angell at <a href="mailto:michael.angell@spglobal.com">michael.angell@spglobal.com</a>. </div>

Zim Integrated Shipping Services saw its container volumes in 2025 drop for the first time in two years, but managed to beat Wall Street estimates for its fourth-quarter earnings. The Israel-based ocean carrier said Monday it ended 2025 handling total volumes of 3.6 million TEUs, a 2.3% year-over-year drop and its first full-year decline since 2023. The declines were largely led by Zim’s cross-Suez and trans-Atlantic services, which dropped 13% and 10%, respectively, from 2024. Trans-Pacific business, which accounts for 43% of Zim’s volumes, fell 1.6%. The company’s intra-Asia and Latin America business were the standouts in 2025, posting gains of 4% and 2%, respectively. The average freight rate Zim saw during the fourth quarter was $1,333 per FEU, down 29% from a year earlier. Despite the drop, Zim reported fourth-quarter earnings of 32 cents per share, well above the consensus analyst estimate of a 52-cents-per-share loss, according to S&P Global Capital IQ, a sister company of the Journal of Commerce. Fourth-quarter revenue of $1.48 billion came in about $50 million below analysts’ estimates. Zim, which is being acquired by Hapag-Lloyd , said it would not provide guidance for 2026 nor host a conference call due to the pending acquisition. But Chief Executive Eli Glickman said in the carrier’s earnings statement that Zim expects “continued pressure on freight rates.” During 2025, Zim signed long-term charter agreements for 36 newbuild container ships with capacities between 3,000 TEUs and 12,000 TEUs. The newbuilds will provide a total of 250,000 TEUs in additional capacity, with the first deliveries expected in the second half of 2026. The carrier said it ended 2025 with a total of 115 container ships of 707,000 TEUs in total capacity. It expects 13 of those ships to roll off their charters this year, and another 17 in 2027. Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@spglobal.com .

Container lines

Zim’s fourth-quarter earnings beat estimates despite drop in rates, volume

<div class="phx-topic abstract-wrapper">Hutchison-owned Panama Ports Company had its 28-year concession to manage and operate the Balboa and Cristóbal terminals nullified by Panama’s Supreme Court on Jan 29. </div>

Hutchison-owned Panama Ports Company had its 28-year concession to manage and operate the Balboa and Cristóbal terminals nullified by Panama’s Supreme Court on Jan 29.

<div class="phx-topic">Panama Ports Company (PPC) is seeking more than $2 billion in damages in its international arbitration claim against Panama after the government canceled its long-held operating concession and seized control of the Balboa and Cristóbal marine terminals last month. PPC, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-headquartered conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings, said it is also taking legal action to recover property, equipment and documents removed when <a href="https://www.joc.com/article/maersk-msc-units-begin-interim-management-of-panama-canal-terminals-6175167">the government took control of the terminals on Feb. 23</a>. Action is being taken against both the Panamanian government and the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA). The details of the arbitration claim were announced in a PPC statement Friday relayed by Hutchison, which has a 90% stake in PPC. The Panama company had its 28-year concession to manage and operate the Balboa and Cristóbal terminals nullified by Panama’s Supreme Court on Jan 29. <h3>Operations returning to normal </h3>Separately, the PMA confirmed operations at the terminals are returning to normal after Maersk’s APM Terminals and Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s Terminal Investments Limited (TiL) were appointed temporary operators of Balboa and Cristóbal, respectively. Both assignments are due to last 18 months. Minister for Canal Affairs José Ramón Icaza said new operating systems were online and being tested, while Balboa is accepting export cargo, empty containers and rolling stock. Icaza said about 526 former PPC staff out of a total workforce of 1,200 at both terminals had been replaced, over 200 at Balboa and 326 at Cristóbal. The government had also reached new agreements with two out of four labor unions at the ports. Hutchison’s operation of the two ports through PPC had been the focus of a highly charged geopolitical spat between the Trump administration and China for more than a year. That was highlighted again during President Donald Trump’s Shield of Americas summit on Saturday in Miami with 12 Latin American leaders, including Panama President José Raúl Mulino. Trump said the US would “not allow hostile foreign influence to establish itself in this hemisphere, and that includes the Panama Canal.” Closer commercial relationships with US companies were highlighted in a separate meeting Saturday between Mulino and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “US companies will begin to have greater participation in bidding processes in Panama in this new era of relations with the United States,” Rubio said, without specifically mentioning the awarding of new terminal concessions for Balboa and Cristóbal. Contact Keith Wallis at <a href="mailto:keithwallis@hotmail.com">keithwallis@hotmail.com</a>. </div>

Panama Ports Company (PPC) is seeking more than $2 billion in damages in its international arbitration claim against Panama after the government canceled its long-held operating concession and seized control of the Balboa and Cristóbal marine terminals last month. PPC, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-headquartered conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings, said it is also taking legal action to recover property, equipment and documents removed when the government took control of the terminals on Feb. 23 . Action is being taken against both the Panamanian government and the Panama Maritime Authority (PMA). The details of the arbitration claim were announced in a PPC statement Friday relayed by Hutchison, which has a 90% stake in PPC. The Panama company had its 28-year concession to manage and operate the Balboa and Cristóbal terminals nullified by Panama’s Supreme Court on Jan 29. Operations returning to normal Separately, the PMA confirmed operations at the terminals are returning to normal after Maersk’s APM Terminals and Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s Terminal Investments Limited (TiL) were appointed temporary operators of Balboa and Cristóbal, respectively. Both assignments are due to last 18 months. Minister for Canal Affairs José Ramón Icaza said new operating systems were online and being tested, while Balboa is accepting export cargo, empty containers and rolling stock. Icaza said about 526 former PPC staff out of a total workforce of 1,200 at both terminals had been replaced, over 200 at Balboa and 326 at Cristóbal. The government had also reached new agreements with two out of four labor unions at the ports. Hutchison’s operation of the two ports through PPC had been the focus of a highly charged geopolitical spat between the Trump administration and China for more than a year. That was highlighted again during President Donald Trump’s Shield of Americas summit on Saturday in Miami with 12 Latin American leaders, including Panama President José Raúl Mulino. Trump said the US would “not allow hostile foreign influence to establish itself in this hemisphere, and that includes the Panama Canal.” Closer commercial relationships with US companies were highlighted in a separate meeting Saturday between Mulino and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “US companies will begin to have greater participation in bidding processes in Panama in this new era of relations with the United States,” Rubio said, without specifically mentioning the awarding of new terminal concessions for Balboa and Cristóbal. Contact Keith Wallis at keithwallis@hotmail.com .

International ports

Hutchison seeks $2 billion in damages from Panama after terminal deal canceled

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The Journal of Commerce is the industry’s source for maritime news and analysis about ocean container shipping, logistics, supply chains, global shipping ports, shipping technology solutions and end-to-end connectivity. Coverage tracks the movement of containerized cargo — from origin to destination — handled by marine terminals in the US and abroad, depots, container ports, container lines, drayage, consignees and shippers, forwarders, non-vessel operating common carriers (NVOs) and off-dock warehousing providers, as well as pricing, capacity, volume and reliability on the trans-Pacific, Asia–Europe, North America–Caribbean, Central and South American and intra-Asia trades.

Discover comprehensive trucking news and trends with Journal of Commerce - from trucking LTL to regulation and trucking supply and demand.

Breakbulk News shipping | Journal of Commerce

Breakbulk News

Container shipping news and analysis of ocean container shipping, logistics, supply chains, technology and end-to-end connectivity.

Container Shipping News | Journal of Commerce

Stay informed on port news worldwide with Journal of Commerce. From decarbonization to labor updates, get insights on global developments.

Port News | Journal of Commerce

News and analysis of ocean containerized cargo movement, logistics, supply chains, technology, and end-to-end connectivity. Maritime news and analysis of containerized ocean cargo movement, breakbulk and roll-on and roll-off shipping from origin to destination.

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