North American ports

CBRE’s latest figures on industrial real estate demand show the supply of new and existing warehouses grew faster than tenant demand, with vacancy spikes expected through 2023.

Activity at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has a direct impact on the domestic intermodal market, large intermodal providers say, which is why rail volumes were so poor in the first quarter.

An agreement on manning requirements at conventional terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach could open the door for a deal on a tentative coastwide contract in the next couple of weeks, sources say.

The Port of Houston is changing its tariff to align with ocean carriers who are no longer charging detention and demurrage fees when terminal gates are closed, but it’s also increasing its own fees to incentivize cargo movement.

Jones Act carrier Crowley will offer a new international container service from Mexico’s Gulf Coast into Mobile that will use Canadian National for inland reach to the US Midwest and Canada.

Forwarders generally believe the limited GRI gains that have been achieved or are anticipated in the coming weeks on the India-US trades will be short-lived unless more capacity is withdrawn or a large increase in volumes occurs.

New York-New Jersey port truckers who worked five days per week last year are now down to about half that amount, sending spot drayage rates well below levels seen in 2021 and 2022.

Shippers are moving more freight in the US Southwest, and paying more to do so, despite weak trucking markets elsewhere in the country, according to U.S. Bank.

California wants to give shippers a single view into freight operations at five state ports with a joint grant for those gateways to create a single data system that can provide visibility.

The Georgia Ports Authority expects to begin construction on the approximately $170 million terminal in early 2024, which will have a focus on manufacturing imports and poultry exports.

When it became apparent the carriers’ recent GRI had succeeded in bumping up spot rates by several hundred dollars, sources say customers moved to sign their contracts out of concern that rates would only go higher the longer they waited.

Jaxport is seeking a new tenant or tenants for a 79-acre parcel at the Talleyrand Marine Terminal in preparation for Toyota vacating the property in 2025.

The FMC is poised to implement potentially far-reaching changes in how detention and demurrage fees are assessed, a move that could cloud how to incentivize the movement of cargo through US marine terminals.

The use of slow steaming, which will also reduce emissions, is one method for MSC to absorb more ships coming into its fleet this year without adding more weekly capacity.

Coming to an agreement on the manning issue at Los Angeles–Long Beach would allow the ILWU and PMA to move on to other big matters such as wages and retirement benefits, sources say.

Vancouver’s proposed Robert Banks Terminal 2 cleared a major federal environmental hurdle this week, putting the focus on who will construct and build the facility with a planned annual capacity of 2.4 million TEU.

Foes of the Oakland stadium plan said building at the 55-acre terminal site would disrupt the flow of traffic in and out of the port and create a security risk.

The ILWU statement comes even as Local 13 continued to engage in job action this week that has been slowing cargo handling at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The West Coast continues to lose discretionary cargo to the East and Gulf coasts as shippers seek to avoid the type of disruption that has been occurring in Southern California of late linked to ongoing labor negotiations.

Alabama legislators are looking to pass a series of new tax credits that aim to encourage more shippers to use the state’s ports and labor force.

The Supreme Court turned away New York’s attempt to keep New Jersey beholden to a bi-state police agency charged with labor oversight at their jointly run port.

Forwarders said the capacity increase is due to carriers no longer skipping or blanking calls at Japanese ports following the normalization of demand and the easing of port congestion in the US.

The carrier executive says despite a slow start to 2023, a return to seasonal shipping patterns in August and September could follow a mid-summer lull in import demand.

Although the two carriers are partners in the 2M Alliance, it was the addition of extra capacity in their standalone services that led them to handle a combined 40 percent of the cargo coming into the Gulf Coast last year.

The main advocacy group for US ports said the step change in port funding over the coming years will mitigate future congestion and allow for better cargo flow.

The long-term impact of container shipping’s moment in the sun — and in the crosshairs of regulators — will come down to which of two starkly divergent versions of reality carries sway in Washington in the coming months.

The assessment of storage fees inside a terminal creates competitive pressures among marine terminal operators, their container line customers, and the importers that contract with container lines.

Both sides say they won’t disclose details of the tentative agreement that would last through 2025 until it has been approved by their respective membership.

After the flurry of April contracting action and a rush of cargo to avoid new GRIs, carriers in May will show the industry the extent of their capacity control for their second half of the year, writes Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

The first-quarter profit estimates came as Cosco Shipping announced plans for a general rate increase on all dry and reefer cargo to the US from Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East from May 15.

How successful ocean carriers are in securing general rate increases comes down to the health of so-called green shoots of demand and the effectiveness of increased blanking of capacity.

After effectively shutting down the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for two shifts last week, the largest International Longshore and Warehouse Union local on Monday engaged in a job action that delayed the start of cargo-handling.

Looming federal rulemaking over detention and demurrage billing policy continues to compel container lines to refrain from assessing free time fees on weekends and holidays, with Hapag-Lloyd the latest to make such a change.

The National Retail Federation’s April forecast for US import volumes shows little change from March, with the only shipper risk on the horizon the status of West Coast longshore talks.

The process of moving the T-5 matter through the courts could easily take a year or two, raising questions about how that will affect labor talks between the ILWU and PMA.

The closure of the international terminals at Los Angeles and Long Beach is sure to further raise the ire and frustration of US cargo interests who worry about disruption linked to the ongoing coastwide negotiations and resultant loss of discretionary cargo.

The two states have assured the police force in charge of labor oversight at the Port of New York and New Jersey that their ongoing work will continue regardless of the outcome of a Supreme Court decision in June over its status.

The move comes less than two months after GPA said it would stop offering evening truck hours at Savannah as volumes moving through the port have slowed significantly in recent months.

Ocean carriers are already rushing to fall in line with pending FMC rulemaking, with a string of liners announcing in recent weeks they will cease charging detention and demurrage on containers that cannot be picked up or dropped off when a terminal is closed for business.

The warehouse market near the Port of New York and New Jersey is seeing some tenants leave and new space becoming available, but that’s not a sign of a significant drop in demand, observers say.