International ports

Transshipment hubs in South and Southeast Asia are pouring investment into expanding facilities and adding new equipment to handle the increasing size of container vessels, the new alliance groupings and steadily improving trade.

Port Metro Vancouver is capitalizing on a lull in cargo activity before the peak-shipping season begins this summer to implement key aspects of the most ambitious effort in North America to improve truck turn times.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. is consolidating all its activities in Antwerp in a single terminal and quitting its current facility more than 15 years before its concession expires to handle an expected increase in traffic when it launches joint services with Maersk and CMA CGM in the P3 Network.

When a Spanish archer shot a flaming arrow into a cauldron to light the torch at the Olympic stadium in Barcelona, the spectacular feat did more than open the 1992 Olympic Games; it also signaled the transformation of this Mediterranean seaport into a maritime gateway and logistics platform for European trade.

Container throughput at major ports in India climbed 3.71 percent year-over-year in April.

Manila mayor Joseph Estrada on May 12 suspended the Philippine capital’s deeply unpopular daytime truck ban for the next eight days in a bid to clear containers choking the port before a World Economic Forum summit begins on May 21.

Construction workers in Panama ended a two-week nationwide strike today, allowing the expansion of the Panama Canal to resume, Reuters reports.

London Gateway has landed its first east-west liner service after the G6 Alliance announced it would call at the United Kingdom’s newest container port.

International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI) will invest $500 million in the port of Melbourne’s third container terminal after holding off stiff competition for the 26-year contract.

The Port of Rotterdam Authority has signed a joint venture with a Brazilian consortium to develop a new deep-sea multi-purpose port in South America’s largest nation.

Greece has received expressions of interest from six companies seeking to bid for a majority stake in the port of Piraeus, its largest container port and an emerging Mediterranean transshipment hub.

Da Nang Port in central Vietnam handled 47,000 20-foot containers in the first quarter as cargo throughput recorded sharp growth.

Container traffic through the port of Antwerp grew just 0.9 percent in the first quarter from a year ago...

Peel Ports, owner of the port of Liverpool, signed a £100 million ($168 million) contract with China’s Zhenhua Heavy Industries to supply cranes for a new deep-water quay that will triple the size of container ships the northwestern UK port can handle.

Japan has enacted a bill to allow the government to acquire equity stakes in the operators of key domestic container ports to help shore up their international competitiveness.

Thousands of workers at a Samsung factory near Shanghai demand compensation after learning the factory will relocate to Vietnam.

Container traffic in Rotterdam inched up just 0.3 percent in the first quarter, as Europe’s biggest container hub confronted continuing overcapacity in the Le Havre-to-Hamburg port range and changes in the container shipping sector.

The rise in labor costs in China and other countries has led to the inclusion of more countries in the global supply chain, but a Standard Chartered report argues that the pace of manufacturing’s migration to lower-cost countries will be slow, especially for higher-value goods.

The number of foreign trade containers handled by the Port of Kobe in western Japan fell for the second year in a row in 2013, according to figures released by the Kobe municipal government.

JUAREZ, Mexico — Each Christmas ornament or mannequin that is shipped from here to major U.S. retailers is a sign of Mexico’s growing competitive edge with China.

Philippine terminal operators believe calls to transfer container-handling operations away from Manila as part of the solution to ease chronic traffic congestion in the city are unrealistic.

With productivity a growing battleground among container terminals, Singapore is making a high-profile research investment to ensure its port, the world’s second busiest, remains competitive.

The Hong Kong port faces challenges on several fronts.

The number of foreign trade containers handled by the Port of Osaka in western Japan rose to a new record high in 2013, according to preliminary figures from the Osaka municipal government.

Contracted dockworkers at Hong Kong’s Kwai Chung Container Terminals have been told they will receive a 12 percent pay increase, but after last year’s successful strike...

European ports will struggle to handle the revamped services due to be launched by the P3 and G6 carrier alliances due to their weak intermodal transport links, according to Drewry Maritime Research.

Manila’s heavy vehicle access restrictions, imposed in February to help ease the city’s notorious gridlock, are frustrating the Philippine shipping and logistics industry.

The volume of export and import containers handled at major ports in India slid 3 percent year-over-year in fiscal year 2013-14, from April 2013 to March 2014, but total cargo tonnage inched up 1.78 percent, according to the latest traffic data released by the Indian Ports Association.

Truck drivers have been back on the job for about one week now at Port Metro Vancouver, but Canada’s largest port remains quite congested, and moving containers into and out of the harbor is a chore.

Container throughput at India’s Port of Jawaharlal Nehru declined 2.5 percent year-over-year in fiscal year 2013-14, which ended March 31, 2014, continuing a slide that began in the previous fiscal year.

Port Metro Vancouver is confident that the revised 14-point action plan that convinced truck drivers in late March to end their four-week strike will establish the framework for a long-term solution to the port’s frustrating drayage problems.

Striking truck drivers late yesterday reached an agreement with Port Metro Vancouver, the federal government of Canada and the provincial government of British Columbia...

J.P. Morgan Asset Management is to invest €100 million euros ($138 million) to expand capacity and improve intermodal facilities at the container terminal at the port of Valencia on Spain’s Mediterranean coast.

SHANGHAI, China — The Hong Kong government, in an effort to prepare for and attract mega-container ships, plans to deepen ports in the region, according to Hong Kong maritime officials.

The Kandla Port Trust has canceled a global tender to build and operate its long-planned mega container terminal project, dealing a serious blow to India’s port privatization program.

The Port of Yokohama in Japan saw its container trade with foreign countries plunge 5.2 percent in 2013 from a year earlier to about 2.588 million 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs), according to preliminary figures released by the Yokohama municipal government.

The provincial government of British Columbia was making progress today on implementing a back-to-work bill designed to end a crippling truckers’ strike that is now in its fourth week at Port Metro Vancouver.

Truck traffic at Port Metro Vancouver continued to increase over the weekend, but still remained below normal as the maritime community anticipated introduction of back-to-work legislation today...