International ports

The company’s spending push is another sign that shipping and logistics multinationals are increasingly betting on India’s potential as an alternative maritime hub.

A share in Eurogate’s CTH facility would give the carrier a firm foothold in Europe’s third-largest container port.

Europe’s busiest container port has maintained its growth so far this year despite persistent congestion, intermittent strikes and growing geopolitical tensions.

A meeting of the interested parties kicked off what will likely be a year-long process to select developers to design, build and operate the two terminals at Corozal on the Pacific side of the canal and Colón on the Atlantic that will cost a combined $2.6 billion.

The partnership is part of a broader effort to advance the development of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor via the Adriatic’s main port.

The ocean carrier and logistics provider already has big investments in Panama but may lack dedicated berth space for ships if MSC swoops in on two big container terminals there.

The top ocean carriers serving Colombo have kept their calls intact while others are skipping calls.

Industrial action by auxiliary workers in Rotterdam and Antwerp-Bruges is heavily disrupting operations in the region’s two busiest container ports.

At first blush, the fees targeting US entities would affect Matson, Maersk Line and APL, part of the CMA CGM group.

The fresh disruptions come as the Asia-Europe trade lane continues to present shippers with the worst schedule reliability among the major ocean corridors.

Rail authorities have had to restrict or suspend train services into India’s busiest gateway multiple times in recent weeks in an attempt to clear the backlog of import containers trapped in port yards.

The onus of calculating new US port fees that kick in next week falls on ocean carriers.

A string of storms in September has roiled vessel schedules and terminal operations throughout the region.

But supply chains in a region stretching between South China, Taiwan and the Philippines face extensive disruption even after terminals reopen and flights resume as shippers rush to complete orders ahead of Golden Week factory closures.

The annual report on global port performance shows almost universally weaker scores due to vessel delays and reroutings, but some terminal operators helped a few ports buck the trend.

Super typhoon Ragasa is the 19th named storm to hit the region this year, with container terminals shutting down and airlines preparing to ground flights from Tuesday night.

The terminal would cement the port’s status as the biggest gateway in South America, boosting its annual container capacity by almost 60% and allowing it to handle 20,000-TEUs ships, many of those from Asia.

Local carrier and forwarder sources expressed relief that the truck strike ended before it had become a crisis extending beyond the two ports.

The waterway has the capacity to handle 36 daily transits, but ACP Administrator Ricaurte Vásquez Morales told a media briefing the average is projected to land at only 33 next year.

Cosco said the joint venture will be responsible for developing a multifunctional logistics park involving the construction of high-specification warehouses, cold chain storage, and consolidation and distribution facilities.

The public and private funding will go predominantly toward cutting shipping emissions, developing alternative fuel technology and rolling out shoreside power at UK ports.

The trucking shutdown adds to existing pressure at India’s busiest container gateway after a buildup of import boxes caused severe rail slowdowns last month.

New data obtained by the Journal of Commerce from local freight forwarders indicates a downward shift of between $400 and $600 per standard dry container in FAK rate levels over the last two weeks.

Container lines offering regular calls at India’s busiest port have told customers the landside logjam is causing considerable supply chain risks for the trade as train turnarounds remain increasingly chaotic.

The four-year pacts with Hutchison Ports Australia and Victoria International Container Terminal were confirmed by the Maritime Union of Australia on Thursday.

Local freight forwarders who spoke with the Journal of Commerce have reported three upcoming blank calls out of West India through the first half of September in anticipation of lower cargo lifts.

Sentiment heard with greater frequency from within the industry and from financial analysts holds that overcapacity will overwhelm constraints on capacity in a possible multi-year swoon.

The Israeli carrier said it’s taking steps to comply with a purported ban on its ships at Turkish ports as relations between the two countries sour over the war in Gaza.

New carrier services improved connections between Hamburg and the Mediterranean, Middle East, Asia and India, while hinterland traffic has continued to develop.

The development of the war-damaged Latakia International Container Terminal, which handles 95% of Syria’s containerized trade, is aimed at increasing the port’s handling capacity to 1 million TEUs.

A cautious approach to investment in network and terminal infrastructure is not keeping pace with market growth.

Vietnam’s largest conglomerate said the complex will be developed in three phases between 2026 and 2040 and include a container terminal with at least six berths.

Development of the new terminal comes as gains in transshipment volumes are outpacing the increase in gateway cargo at Busan, where transshipment business has been bolstered by the launch of the Gemini Cooperation earlier this year.

The company did not disclose the identity of the potential Chinese investor in the $23 billion deal, although it is widely thought to be Cosco Shipping Holdings.

Double-digit demand is expected to continue through the third quarter on the Asia-Europe trades, piling more pressure on terminals that have been overstretched for months.

Consumer demand is driving container imports, but the weakening competitive position of European industry is directly impacting the integrated industrial cluster at the port.

Container volumes handled by North Europe’s busiest port continue to grow, alongside the now critical need for more landside capacity.

Beginning in September, the joint service will make added stops at Aarhus in Denmark, Gothenburg in Sweden and Rotterdam in the Netherlands as the last three European calls.

Carriers are pulling back on their blanking campaigns on the Asia-ECSA lane in July after two months of blanking campaigns largely neutralized capacity additions to the lane.

The deployment of 24,000-TEU ships on its Africa Express service allows the carrier to better leverage billions of dollars invested in West Africa in recent years, reducing exposure to congested North European ports.