North American ports

The apparent lifeline comes after port officials announced in April that container service at Portland would end in October due to growing financial losses and the inability to find a third-party operator to take over Terminal 6.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will take full control of the Howland Hook marine terminal in Staten Island while New York City will take over Brooklyn’s Red Hook terminal.

A preliminary federal investigation found the use of a different breaker configuration than had been previously in use onboard the Dali that led to a series of power blackouts on its outbound voyage.

Maritime employers along Canada’s West Coast have filed a complaint asking the federal government to further intervene in stalled talks with the union representing longshore foremen.

The International Longshoremen’s Association and its maritime employers are highlighting amicable outcomes to previous contract talks as they get ready to restart coastwide negotiations.

Shippers will soon be able to retrieve cargo aboard the Dali, but they or their insurers will be expected to post sizable bonds to cover general average claims.

Terminal operator Enstructure unveiled a public-private partnership with Delaware that will eventually increase Wilmington’s annual capacity to more than 1.5 million TEUs.

The National Retail Federation has once again increased its forecast for imports into the 2024 peak shipping season, saying consumer spending remains strong despite geopolitical turmoil and stubbornly high inflation.

With US manufacturers shrinking their plastics inventories, overseas buyers are taking up an even more important role for North American resins producers.

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.

US electronics imports are rebounding after a two-year decline as consumers replace devices purchased during the COVID-19 pandemic with newer products.

ONE's West India-North America Express (WIN) service is set to debut at Nhava Sheva with a May 12 call from the ONE Modern.

The tie-up is part of a wider move by individual members of THE Alliance to broaden their respective networks and maintain alliance commitments without adding a replacement carrier to succeed Hapag-Lloyd.

Container lines, which normally operate six weekly services connecting to Baltimore, have begun accepting bookings for shipments to the port as it eyes a reopening later this month.

While Wallenius Wilhelmsen has signed a terminal expansion deal at Brunswick, it will not be leaving Baltimore, the ro/ro carrier says.

One forwarder that had a recent cargo sail from Mundra complained that loading was only confirmed subject to the additional charges being paid.

The federal grants lean heavily on further electrification of heavy-duty trucks, but also look to other methods for reducing emissions.

The risk of a strike along the East and Gulf coasts stems from the ILA believing it is entitled to a fair share of the ocean carriers’ pandemic windfall of over $400 billion, as estimated by one industry analyst.

Shippers have long struggled to get direct access to rail milestone data that matches the depth and accuracy of ocean visibility markers.

The gateway’s long-serving chief executive will be replaced by Charlie Jenkins, who is overseeing the widening and deepening of Houston’s ship channel.

The city of Baltimore wants a judge to waive a limit in liability that the container ship’s owner and operator sought after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and subsequent closure of the port.

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.

All four container terminals at the Port of Oakland were closed for the day shift on Monday as demonstrators protesting the war in Gaza shut down a nearby major freeway and threatened to picket at the port.

Still, more capacity is on the way for India-US shippers, with Ocean Network Express due to start its new West India-USEC standalone connection in late May.

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.

The shipping industry’s ability to overcome physical disruptions such as the Port of Baltimore’s closure shouldn’t lull it into complacency because growing geopolitical threats could provide new obstacles that can’t be as easily managed, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

The US DOT has also offered some relief, granting an exemption that permits truck drivers to work an additional two hours of drive time beyond federal limits if the cargo is connected to the Port of Baltimore closure.

Ocean carriers have signaled their belief that US consumer buying will remain strong into the second half of the year by announcing the launch or restart of 11 services involving the trans-Pacific and north-south trades.

And the US Army Corps of Engineers says it expects to clear the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge from Baltimore’s 50-foot-deep shipping channel by the end of May, “restoring port access to normal capacity.”

Norfolk Southern will join CSX in running inter-port trains between New York/New Jersey and Baltimore to limit disruptions involving cargo rerouted after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

The decision underscores that ship diversions around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope will likely last through at least the first half of 2024, if not longer, as carriers see no short-term resolution to the uncertain security situation in the region.

The new vessel-sharing agreement will see the introduction of non-CMA CGM ships into a string that runs between the West Coast of South America and ports in the US Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

Negotiations between the railroads and the Teamsters have hit a stumbling block over salary and mandatory rest periods, prompting the union to schedule an April 8 start date for voting on a possible strike notice.

Nearby gateways are preparing to handle the diversion of vessels and freight that would have landed at Baltimore at least through May following the port’s indefinite closure.

Given the ample supply of marine chassis available in the US, chassis providers are confident they can handle any rerouted cargo from the closed Port of Baltimore to other East Coast ports in the short term without issue.

ONE and Yang Ming say the partnership will maintain most of its existing services into next year as it readies for a direct-call model and “speed buffers” to boost schedule reliability.

Recently passed House legislation amending landmark shipping reform takes a hard approach to China’s maritime influence on US ports but holds back on reining in the limited antitrust exemption container lines use to participate in alliances, writes Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

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.

Freight diversions to more distant ports will raise trucking costs for US importers and shippers, but excess truckload capacity is expected to dilute the disruption.