International ports

From port congestion and new ocean alliances to driver shortages and rail service worries, the global supply chain is more fragile than at any point in recent memory. Three shippers discuss how they’re adjusting to the challenges.

Customs brokers in Mumbai are blaming a lackadaisical inventory management by DP World-operated Nhava Sheva International Container Terminal (NSICT) for the long truck waits outside Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India’s largest container gateway.

The port of Itajai risks losing future business from shipper skittishness after a protest shut the second-largest Brazilian container gateway for more than 30 hours this week.

The Chibatao container terminal in Manaus, Brazil, plans to spend 113 million-reais ($41.9 million) to boost its annual container capacity by two-thirds to 500,000 TEUs.

The Panama Canal Authority recently cleared the way for building a big new transshipment port at Corozal near the Pacific entrance of the canal that is expected to boost traffic once the current expansion project is completed in early 2016.

Poland’s Port of Gdansk is negotiating with Malta-based Mariner Capital on an agreement to privatize operations at the port’s multipurpose cargo terminals.

Brazil has appointed a new Minister for Ports, Edinho Araujo, in a move that is sowing dissatisfaction among the port community. He who will take over from outgoing minister Cesar Borges on Jan. 5.

Buenos Aires' newest container terminal opened for business this week, amid declining volumes at the port in Argentina's largest city.

The port of Antwerp boosted container traffic 4.5 percent in 2014 to just short of 9 million TEUs, marginally outpacing the 4.2 percent growth in total throughput to a new record high of 198.8 million metric tons.

The Ecoporto Santos container terminal in Brazil is moving ahead with an expensive equipment upgrade despite not being guaranteed an extension to the company’s port concession period. This comes as competition among the Santos terminals is heating up, with handling rates eroding in 2014.

The Kenya Ports Authority is seeking operators for a new, $300 million terminal at the Port of Mombasa.

United Liner Agencies (India), part of the Mumbai-based diversified logistics firm J.M. Baxi Group, has been selected to upgrade and operate an existing container terminal at Haldia Dock, a sister facility of Kolkata Port Trust.

Growing e-commerce in the European Union are creating new opportunities for logistics firms but also new liabilities in areas such as product safety, a transport-focused UK law firm argues.

In a significant policy shift, the Japanese government has become the top shareholder of a company operating the Port of Kobe and the Port of Osaka, collectively called the Ports of Hanshin, to help shore up its sagging international competitiveness.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (Nhava Sheva), India's largest container gateway, is showing no signs of getting ahead of the congestion problems that have plagued India’s largest container handler for much of 2014.

The Central American canal projects continue to generate questions over funding — where it will come from in the case of the proposed Nicaraguan plan, and where it is going in the Panama Canal upgrade.

NYK Line has teamed up with Gujarat Pipavav Port, an APM Terminals facility on India’s west coast, to build and operate a new dedicated automobile logistics terminal at the Pipavav port complex.

Less than a month before it takes effect, the Port Metro Vancouver drayage program faces major headwinds with truck drivers threatening to strike if changes to pay aren’t made.

Truck congestion caused by the deteriorating quality of road networks around the Nhava Sheva port complex, India's largest container gateway, is creating a nightmare for shippers already dealing with months-long rail delays and ocean carrier surcharges at India’s largest container gateway, also known as Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust.

The Nigerian Shippers Council hopes its new regulatory powers will help bring Nigerian ports up to global standards by ensuring concessions are awarded fairly.

The port of Rotterdam and Europe Container Terminals, its biggest container handler, have buried the hatchet over a bitter three year dispute over the award of terminal concessions in Europe’s top box hub.

DP World’s Indian facility, Mundra International Container Terminal, said it broke the one-million-TEU mark for the first time in its fiscal year that ends Dec. 30.

The installation of new gates at a Panama Canal expansion site will bring the project to 84 percent of completion ahead of an estimated early 2016 opening date, the canal authority says.

Indonesia’s marine-highway program — a bold $55.4 billion plan to develop 24 commercial seaports, over a thousand non-commercial seaports and procure vessels — is facing a revision as some ports in the proposal may not be suitable for handling containers.

Brazil port and health authorities carried out a simulated ebola emergency at the port of Santos last week to help improve the response to the threat the disease poses at maritime ports of entry.

Relocation of manufacturing to the U.S. has increased in recent years but doesn’t appear to be growing faster than manufactured imports, management consulting firm A.T. Kearney says in a report on reshoring.

Shippers and ocean carriers, left reeling from months-long congestion and berthing delays at India’s largest container port complex, Nhava Sheva (Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust), are unlikely to get a break in the near future, as the port authority has been forced to push back an equipment modernization program by a month following delays in the arrival of new gantry cranes.

It's been called the final frontier for trade growth — the only place in the world where exponential economic and cargo growth is still possible and major trade is still evolving. Rising African container volumes are increasingly showing the limits of freight infrastructure on both the East and West African coasts, where ports are experiencing trouble dealing with the rise in ship calls and freight volume.

The port of Antwerp faces a total shutdown on Monday as dockers and other waterfront workers join a 24-hour nationwide strike that will also paralyze rail freight and air cargo traffic across Belgium.

EUROGATE Container Terminal Bremerhaven this week handled its 1 millionth standard rail container, as more intermodal trains served the German gateway this year than in 2013.

Terminal operator DP World said it will lock out dockworkers at Australia’s Port of Fremantle for 24 hours next week in the latest move in an increasingly bitter labor dispute.

The number of containers handled at major ports in India climbed 8.32 percent year-over-year from April through November, the first eight fiscal months, continuing an accelerating growth trend that leaves state-owned port authorities on track to meet annual throughput targets.

The Brazilian port of Manaus will invest R$97 million (US 37.4 million) in automation at one container terminal and at a general cargo facility and buy new equipment after receiving private use status, exempting it from certain labor rules.

Beneficial cargo owners are still navigating the perils of U.S. West Coast port congestion, as they attempt to bring inventory in for the spring season.

The Nigerian Ports Authority will turn to a task force to help identify root causes of congestion at the Lagos port complex as volumes continue to grow.

Foreign container throughput at Pearl River Delta ports grew 12.8 percent in November, the highest monthly growth in more than two years and putting, according to data reported by Citi Research on Monday.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. has lifted its congestion surcharge of $100 per TEU imposed earlier on shipments moving from Europe to Sohar, saying congestion at Oman's largest port is easing.

Officials celebrated the start of operations at Mumbai port’s new $300 million offshore container terminal with the arrival last week of the Hoegh Delhi, a roll-on, roll-off vessel.