Port News

Despite sliding breakbulk volumes during the first five months of the year, there are signs that spillover cargo may reappear at the Port of New Orleans thanks to the disrupted global market.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. is increasing capacity between Asia and the West Coast of Mexico amid surging foreign direct investment by China into Mexico.

Suspending construction work will allow the Port of Charleston to reopen all three berths in the Wando Welch terminal for two weeks and reduce a backlog of anchored vessels, but ocean carriers should anticipate at least two days of waiting to get a berth once work resumes.

Local forwarders say the rate hikes are partly due to worsening delays at key ports in Brazil, with ongoing construction work closing part of Navegantes and vessel diversions from that port overwhelming other gateways.

The February decision from the agency said ocean carriers can mandate which chassis to use for carrier haulage business, but not for merchant haulage.

Hapag-Lloyd will be withdrawing from the Indamex service it has operated in conjunction with CMA CGM for decades and will kick off a standalone loop on the route in early August.

The pointed sentiments expressed recently by the ILA are a departure from the low-key, business-like approach to prior negotiations along the East and Gulf coasts, and thus unfamiliar to shippers trying to weigh the risks of labor strife, writes Peter Tirschwell.

The market share of loads entering or exiting the port’s Garden City Terminal on train has increased from a year ago as the Georgia Ports Authority grows into a relatively new on-dock rail yard.

Forwarder sources believe that the upcoming weeks could prove challenging for bookings to the US East Coast, given that ONE’s WIN service will have two blank sailings out of India in July.

Still, insurers said the difficulties have yet to materialize in a noticeable rise in claims for spoiled cold chain or perishable products.

Measures to mitigate the impact of a potential labor disruption at US East and Gulf coast ports could cause the trans-Atlantic market to follow the same path as the heavily disrupted trades out of Asia.

Trade disruption and related congestion, high container rates and tight capacity are pushing shippers to rethink transport modes and make early moves toward revisiting the spillover market seen during the pandemic.

Summer strikes have begun in Europe with a series of walkouts causing significant disruption across the main German and French container ports.

Large Indian industrial importers, relying heavily on China for input products, have complained that despite shelling out exorbitantly high freight rates, vessel space at load ports continues to be problematic.

The International Longshoremen’s Association cited the “massive profits” ocean carriers have booked in recent years to highlight the wage proposal it plans to push in contract talks with employers.

With two new services starting up in the past month, the Northwest Seaport Alliance of Seattle and Tacoma anticipates a rebound in imports from Asia this peak season.

The port is the latest inland location in the western US looking to capitalize on strict regulations in California that are driving up costs for trucking companies.

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.

Established long-haul carriers are also launching a raft of new services between Asia and the Americas to take advantage of the buoyant market.

The Global Port Tracker has again increased its forecast for US imports through September, with the National Retail Federation pointing to retailers stocking up to meet the rising demand of consumers.

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.

The continuing rate softness comes as some carriers prepare to implement peak season surcharges ranging from $500 to $750 per container on Indian loads to the East Coast, mostly from June 15.

The current chaos playing out in the container market globally doesn’t have to last that long to have some big impacts on North American intermodal, writes Larry Gross.

As a destination port, Barcelona is being used for transshipment beyond its capacity, something that has increased dwell times and slowed the turnaround of vessels.

The fourth edition of the Container Port Performance Index shows some changes in the annual list’s middle tier as ports improve and new entrants make their mark.

The strength of bookings over the past month has surprised container lines executives, even when factoring some front-loading and replenishing inventories that are back to pre-pandemic levels, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

Evergreen Marine’s neo-Panamax service from Asia will start making regular calls to Baltimore by mid-July, and the port’s container terminal is ready to start receiving imports.

Spot rate quotes secured by forwarders from major carriers for sailings near the end of June are up between $500 to $600 per container on average from levels seen for the first half of the month.

Container ships are anchoring outside both southeast US ports due in part to a project in Charleston that will shut one berth at the Wando Welch Terminal until the fall.

Ports not designed for transshipment are being inundated with boxes, one of the knock-on effects of Suez Canal diversions that is contributing to a global capacity crunch, experts say.

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.

After a successful one-off exercise involving 300 containers moving through Terminal 18 in Seattle, the Northwest Seaport Alliance will seek to convince ocean carriers to implement greater use of block stowage of rail cargo on vessels leaving Asia.

The West Coast’s sharp jump in on-time performance — the highest gain of the 34 trade lanes covered by the analyst’s monthly report — is a sign ports along the coast have not been directly impacted by the ongoing ship diversions around southern Africa.

FMC investigators found the carrier “overbroadly defined and applied” the merchant clause in its bill of lading to a third party “who should not have been billed,” the agency said.

Singapore is a key intermediate point for Indian transshipment trade, especially out of the country’s East Coast corridor that has fewer direct mainline connections.

The intermodal logistics provider is ramping up transloading capabilities in the US Southeast to meet increased demand from importers.

The issue of whose chassis to use to haul a container remains unclear as more truckers opt to use their own, but ocean carriers and pools also look to supply the market.

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.

One reason for the hesitation of shippers to sign deals is believed to be the decline of spot rates amid the demand downturn on the trade, and there is an expectation that dynamic will continue to hold.

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.