Latest news

Brazil’s beleaguered President Dilma Rousseff took time off from her political travails last week to inaugurate the first phase of a $557 million expansion at the port of Rio de Janeiro.

The International Longshoremen’s Association and United States Maritime Alliance said they “strongly oppose” any attempt to place the longshore industry’s collective bargaining under the Railway Labor Act.

The daily vessel report Friday from the Marine Exchange of Southern California demonstrates that the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are making progress in digging out from the congestion they experienced in recent months, but they still have a long way to go.

The British government will consider ways to reduce a shortage of truck drivers that shippers and carriers say threatens economic growth in the U.K., including finding funds for driver training.

Nike had a strong winter in North America thanks to robust consumer demand, but it would have had an even better one were it not for the West Coast labor standoff.

Near-unprecedented congestion in Virginia has prompted the state port authority there to reach out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for permission to pay overtime for customs officers working extended operating hours.

Vietnam will now inspect foreign shipping lines for alleged unreasonable surcharges on local traders, the country’s Government Office announced this week.

PSA International is investing 40 million euros ($42.5 million) to boost the annual capacity of its container terminal in Sines, Portugal, to 2.5 million TEUs.

A container-carrying barge that Crowley Liner Services added to fill a void left by Horizon Lines’ exit from Puerto Rico is scheduled to arrive Monday in San Juan on its first voyage.

If passed, a reintroduced U.S. Senate bill could help shippers gain faster relief from railroads, both in terms of service and rate challenges.

German barge operator Contargo doubled down on its warning that it will impose surcharges because of congestion at the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp, saying it would decide whether to levy higher fees next week at the latest.

Representatives from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach visit Washington, D.C., every year around this time to meet with legislators, shippers and federal agencies, but their fly-in earlier this week was particularly pointed.

APM Terminals-operated Gateway Terminals India, which has borne the brunt of landside congestion-related issues in the Nhava Sheva port complex in the recent past, is again experiencing shipping delays due to labor slowdowns tied to the still-resolved crane operator contract dispute.

PSA International is investing 40 million euros [$42.5 million] to boost the annual capacity of its container terminal in Sines, Portugal, to 2.5 million TEUs.

The largest International Longshoremen’s Association local in Baltimore will vote again March 25 on a local contract agreement that union and employer representatives hope will end months of confusion and controversy at the port.

Milaha Maritime and Logistics has kicked off a direct feeder link between Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (Nhava Sheva), India, and Doha, Qatar, a route that has seen significant gains in trade volumes in recent years.

Spot rates continued to tumble on the major east-west trades this week with the Asia-Europe price per 20-foot container hitting $620, its lowest rate in more than 18 months, according to the latest reading of the Shanghai Containerised Freight Index (SCFI).

Many container shipping lines have amassed huge debt by ordering mega vessels in a bid to drive down unit costs, but weak demand and an oversupply of tonnage will make it difficult to improve financial performance, according to AlixPartners’ 2015 Container Shipping Outlook.

Malaysia plans to invest millions of dollars into the transportation infrastructure supporting Port Klang in an effort to boost exports out of the country’s main maritime gateway.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s key truck safety initiative — the Compliance, Safety, Accountability or CSA program — is coming under fresh fire on Capitol Hill and from a federal watchdog agency, even as federal regulators take that initiative mobile using a smartphone app.

The announcement last week by carrier alliances that beginning in late March they will deploy three new all-water services from Asia to the East Coast through the Panama Canal was a dagger to the hearts of West Coast ports besieged by congestion and labor problems.

If shippers and transportation providers are expecting Congress to do anything more than kick the can down the road on federal highway funding, they’re in for major disappointment come June, say transportation industry insiders.

New York-New Jersey port truckers are growing frustrated with delays accompanying a late-winter cargo spike that container terminals are struggling to handle.

Dubai’s DP World booked an 11.8 percent increase in 2014 profit as it benefited from its focus on container terminals in fast-growing emerging markets.

Lost-time injury incidents at West Coast ports in 2014 declined by almost half compared to the peak year of 2002, according to the annual safety report published by the Pacific Maritime Association.

U.S. Senate legislation introduced on Wednesday could allow railroads to expedite construction of intermodal terminals and other projects, providing shippers with more capacity and more reliable service.

DB Schenker Logistics profit stalled in 2014 even as the company increased ocean container, air freight and trucking volumes.

Ocean carriers must unlock more value from alliances and accelerate internal transformation programs to restore profitability, according to Boston Consulting Group.

Revenue from Li & Fung’s logistics network soared 66 percent in 2014 to $874 million as the acquisition of giant sea freight forwarder China Container Line last year made its presence felt on the financial statements of the supply chain and sourcing group.

China is steadily adding to the rail network linking the mainland with central Asia and Europe, with a large portion of the $130 billion rail development budget for 2014 spent on improving connections in central and western parts of the country.

The formidable challenges facing Hong Kong port were perfectly captured in the above illustration that was presented with OOCL’s 2014 financial results recently. Few, if any, ports around the world have had to cope with such a thorough change in cargo mix over a relatively short period.

A March 13 U.S. District Court decision in Portland that ordered the International Longshore and Warehouse Union to pay $60,000 to the National Labor Relations Board for engaging in illegal work slowdowns at the Port of Portland has not resulted in improved productivity at the Oregon port.

The Port of Virginia is about to enter its second week of near-unprecedented congestion that has now spread to three of its four terminals on the Elizabeth River.

Putting waterfront labor under the Railway Labor Act will be a heavy legislative lift with a divided Congress and a union-friendly White House. And, it’s unclear if such a move would prevent “economic warfare” — whether from union slowdowns and the withholding of labor, or employers’ refusal to hire workers.

Truck drivers employed by Agility in Kenya ended a strike and are back at work, the company said, after a Kenyan court issued an order calling the strike “unlawful, and therefore unprotected.”

Across-the-board gains in freight volumes and a strong peak shipping season drove FedEx profit skyward, lifting net income 53 percent year-over-year to $580 million in the fiscal quarter that ended Feb. 28, while total revenue rose 4 percent to $11.7 billion.

The ports of New York-New Jersey and Savannah have handled the first container ship to call on the U.S. East Coast with capacity of more than 10,000 20-foot-equivalent units.

The mayor of Newark, New Jersey, has renewed his call for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to provide more money for city-owned land the bistate agency uses for seaport and airport facilities.

The agency responsible for the operation and management of the Panama Canal has asked for an international arbitration panel to review a $233 million award to the consortium expanding the waterway.