Breakbulk ports

With the busiest roll-on/roll-off (ro/ro) port in the US closed to ship traffic, automobile manufacturers and ro/ro carriers are shifting to alternative ports.

The multipurpose sector is managing security risk, dodging pricey transit fees at the Panama Canal and finding new cargo sources as route diversions globally become routine.

Project volumes will include steel and modules related to the development of the second phase of the $21 billion Venture Global liquefied natural gas export facility under construction in Plaquemines Parish, downriver from New Orleans.

The flow of roll-on/roll-off cargo shows little sign of slowing as carriers ink long-term deals with automotive and high and heavy manufacturers.

The new ships, scheduled for delivery in 2026, form a fleet renewal program to replace three existing ro/ro vessels operated by Louis Dreyfus under a long-term charter agreement with Airbus that has been in place for more than 20 years.

Existing wind-related manufacturing capacity in the US struggles to meet the local content requirements of the measure, frustrating would-be developers and pushing away some early investors.

As US project cargo demand — and cargoes themselves — grow, heavy-haul trucking carriers are struggling with permitting delays, infrastructure complications and a rapidly aging workforce.

Breakbulk shippers and logistics providers have several proposals for changes to ISPM 15 mitigation and enforcement measures pending approval from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

The acquisition of Avondale by the port comes just as the state of Louisiana readies to auction its first round of offshore wind leases.

Pandemic congestion may be easing as container rates fall, but breakbulk spillover cargo shows no sign of slowing at the Port of New Orleans.

In a hot breakbulk market, carriers are asking for — and getting — far higher detention fees to cover their potential losses when shippers delay loading or picking up their cargo.

The Port of Houston is trying to expedite a $1 billion dredging project as an ongoing surge in containerized freight shows the need for more capacity at the Gulf Coast’s busiest port.

Houston is seeing a surge in imports thanks to the upsizing of vessel services from Asia as other Gulf Coast ports look for a similar uplift.

Controlling dangerous wood-boring pests in wood packaging material will require more consistent enforcement across the US and helping the private sector learn how to look for these pests themselves.

After a COVID-19 pandemic lull, violations of ISPM 15 regulations around dangerous insects are increasing in Houston and elsewhere, triggering costly remedies and intense frustration in the breakbulk and project cargo community.

Houston pilots said they will allow larger ships to transit the ship channel in a nod to ease a restriction that was seen as falling unfairly on the container shipping industry.

The Texas legislation being questioned by two Federal Maritime Commissioners stemmed from concerns among non-container port users that the growing volume of containerships calling Houston are disrupting the ability of other vessels to transit in an efficient manner.

Federal Maritime Commissioner Carl Bentzel is looking into ways that Houston could handle larger vessels before a widening project is complete, given a Texas law that puts size limits on port calls.

Approval of the Water Resources Development Act this year includes authorization to begin spending down the more than $9 billion balance in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.

UHL, one of very few carriers currently adding newbuildings to the multipurpose fleet, is scheduled to receive eight new F900 ships through December 2021, with the first ship scheduled for delivery in December.

Falling oil prices and rising demand for wind turbines are driving the mix of breakbulk and project cargo in Houston and throughout the US Gulf.

The latest federal funds for the Port of Houston will go to restoring 2,700 linear feet of wharf and upgrading 84 acres of yard space at Barbours Cut Terminal.

The need to widen the channel gained urgency last year when a group of non-container businesses that rely on the port expressed concerns their cargoes would be squeezed by the increasing size and number of container ships moving through Houston.

With information on ISPM 15 violations still difficult to come by, shippers are investigating and educating wood packaging materials (WPM) makers, increasing requirements for heat treatments, and turning to non-WPM materials for dunnage.

The Port of Houston says a group of non-container stakeholders should revise its plan for the authority to float a $500 million bond for the project to widen the port channel, saying that under the plan the port would then be responsible if payments were not made.

A recent uptick in pest presence in properly treated and marked wood packaging materials (WPM) has US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) rethinking its ISPM 15 enforcement policies.

Violations of ISPM 15, which maintains strict guidelines for treatment of all wood packaging materials (WPM) to prevent the accidental introduction of invasive pests, can result in the re-exportation of entire shipments of goods and large fines, even if importers and carriers have followed the regulations to the best of their abilities.

US importers say they face a lack of alternatives, feedback, and proactive sourcing information from enforcement officials when treated and apparently compliant wood packaging materials (WPM) fail ISPM 15 inspection.

Chartering specialist leaves EPC company Fluor for Bremen-based super-heavy-lift carrier.