The new ILWU president and his team are certified and now face the challenge of rebuilding the image of West Coast ports for labor reliability, as BCOs still remember the labor disruptions of 2002 and 2014-2015.

Cosco Shipping Lines was able to contain the damage from last week’s cyber attack to its operations in the Americas, and cargo handling in the United States, Canada, and South America at its marine terminals was largely unaffected because Cosco isolated its internal networks across its global operations.

There are good reasons why participants at the 3rd Annual JOC Gulf Shipping Conference in Houston this week are bullish on US Gulf ports: the region’s growth is outpacing other US coasts, Asian import growth is promising, and the potential exists for Gulf ports to funnel a rebound in Latin American trade. Those are three legitimate growth engines and the resin boom has not even begun yet.

With a quarter of the island’s residents lacking electrical power, long-term improvements are taking a back seat to rebuilding efforts.