Port News

Quick180, which uses algorithms and a web application to match an importer’s empty container with an exporter needing a box at an inland location, is expanding its service to the Port of Savannah.

The embattled Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor is trying to defuse one of the issues that New Jersey legislators cited in sending Gov. Chris Christie a bill to break up the bistate crime watchdog agency.

In a development that could foreshadow the end of container-handling at the Port of Portland, Oregon, Hapag-Lloyd’s service to the Pacific Northwest port has come into question — the carrier has no calls listed in the coming weeks at the port.

Singapore-based regional carrier Bengal Tiger Line has introduced a new intra-Asia service, the MD2, connecting Krishnapatnam, India, to Malaysia and Singapore and giving the alternative gateway to India’s southeastern hinterlands another boost.

Having won overwhelming support from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union caucus for the coastwide contract that was tentatively reached on Feb. 20 with the Pacific Maritime Association, employers and union leaders are stepping up their efforts to eliminate the backlog of vessels and containers that have built up at West Coast ports.

Firefighters in Santos, Brazil, are combating a massive fire at the Ultracargo liquid bulk terminal in Alemoa for the fourth straight day, creating a nightmarish Easter holiday for shippers dependent on South America’s largest port.

U.S. exports of beef, pork and lamb remained subdued in February due to labor disruptions on the West Coast, the strong dollar and market access barriers overseas.

U.S. West Coast shippers are taking a much-needed sigh of relief after International Longshore and Warehouse Union delegates voted in favor of recommending the tentative five-year agreement with waterfront employers to rank-and-file members.

High volume and the lingering impact of West Coast gridlock continue to produce uneven delays at East Coast container ports.

TRAC Intermodal is forming its own chassis pool in Southern California, but the new entity will be added to the “pool of pools,” or neutral chassis arrangement, that was launched at the ports on March 1.

The Port of Oakland said Thursday the vessel backlog that contributed to congestion is over, although vessels may occasionally bunch up at the Northern California port as Los Angeles-Long Beach works to relieve the vessel backlog that is expected to remain in Southern California for at least the coming month.

Southern California truckers who filed complaints with the Uniform Intermodal Interchange Agreement alleging unfair charges for extended storage and late return of equipment at congested marine terminals in recent months should start to see arbitration rulings beginning in mid-April.

Dozens of firefighters are combating a massive blaze at a Santos port installation following three explosions at Brazil’s largest container gateway on Friday morning.

DP World on Thursday announced it is buying Maher Terminal’s Fairview Container Terminal in Prince Rupert, British Colombia, from Germany’s Deutsche Bank, for C$580 million ($457 million).

The on-again, off-again privatization of the port of Piraeus has been thrown into further doubt following conflicting statements by Greek government ministers.

The Port of Virginia is rolling out additional equipment and breaking ground on a new cargo yard in an effort to relieve a now six-week-long container backlog on the waterfront.

Container volumes at West Coast ports plummeted 24 percent in the first two months of the year compared to 2014 due work slowdowns by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, marine terminal congestion and the diversion of cargo to other ports.

Officials at the Panama Canal say an “unusual” backlog of vessels on either side of the waterway is likely due to the lingering effects of U.S. West Coast port congestion more than a month after acrimonious labor disputes there came to a close.

There is no more urgent question facing West Coast port directors in the aftermath of the devastating labor standoff than how to restore the trust of beneficial cargo owners. Yet with it being impossible for port directors to guarantee the reliability of the longshore workforce, finding a solution is tricky.

In the midst of ongoing congestion at the Port of Antwerp, CaroTrans has announced it will be starting an expedited Le Havre-Charleston import service bypassing the Belgian gateway entirely.

Truck turn times in Los Angeles-Long Beach are slowly improving from the dark days of November and December, but numbers released Tuesday by the Harbor Trucking Association of Southern California show the average truck visit to the harbor in February was still 50 percent longer than a year prior.

The new terminal is accessible by rail, truck or barge. It sits behind behind Alabama State Port Authority’s Pier D2 berth on a 40-foot-deep channel at the port authority’s main docks complex.

More than five weeks after West Coast longshoremen and waterfront employers reached a tentative contract, the Port of Oakland is still trying to regain the vessel calls it lost.

DP World and the government of the Maldives have signed an agreement for the latter to build an up to $300 million deepwater port complex on the industrial island of Thilafushi.

The Port of Baltimore will combine a $200,000 U.S. Transportation Department grant with $300,000 in state funds to continue a program subsidizing replacement of old drayage trucks with newer, less-polluting vehicles.

Shippers out of Cameroon's largest port are reporting nearly month-long delays, and at least one container line has said it will begin imposing emergency congestion surcharges.

Goldman Sachs Infrastructure Partners and Infracapital are selling a combined stake of at least 30 percent in Associated British Ports, the U.K.’s biggest ports operator, for about £1.6 billion ($2.37 billion).

The Chennai Port Authority, India’s second-largest state-owned container gateway, is poised to reach a record throughput volume in fiscal year 2014-15, which ends March 31, the latest port statistics collected by JOC.com reveal.

China Merchants Holdings (International), the mainland’s largest port operator, reported a 7.4 percent increase in net profit during 2014 when it handled 80.84 million 20-foot containers at its global terminals to record a volume growth of 13.4 percent.

Terminal operators in Los Angeles-Long Beach are beginning to reduce the vessel backlog built up during the longshore labor negotiations, raising the possibility that the largest U.S. port complex will be back to normal before mid-to-late May as originally expected.

Officials at the Panama Canal on Monday were still working their way through a significant vessel backlog after an “unusual” increase in the number of ships awaiting transit began to back up outside the waterway weeks ago.

Port of Santos users and operators were hit by a bombshell Friday when an injunction was imposed, halting the port’s much-needed dredging program.

HHLA’s operating profit jumped 10 percent in 2014 as it handled record volumes of containers at its three Hamburg terminals.

China’s Cosco Pacific will bid for a majority stake in Greece's port of Piraeus after the country's new socialist government apparently reversed course on its opposition to port privatization.

Ninety International Longshore and Warehouse Union coastwide caucus delegates on Monday will open meetings in San Francisco that will determine the fate of U.S. West Coast ports for the next five years. The caucus will recommend approval or rejection of the tentative ILWU-Pacific Maritime Association contract.

West Coast ports continue to reduce vessel and container backlogs that built up during the nine months of labor negotiations, with the ports of Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma progressing at a faster pace than Los Angeles-Long Beach.

Heavy volume from larger ships and carrier alliances is straining capacity at New York-New Jersey container terminals just when shippers are seeking alternatives to congested West Coast ports.

Terminal operators and equipment managers on the West Coast intend to form a discussion agreement that will allow them to work with industry stakeholders such as shipping lines, motor carriers and railroads to reduce congestion and improve cargo velocity.

Yemen has shut down its major seaports after a series of airstrikes from neighboring Saudi Arabia against rebels fighting Yemen’s Western-backed government, according to various reports.