North American ports

BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad are concerned cargo owners will use trucks instead of trains in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach due to the Excessive Container Dwell fee.

Marine terminal operators in Los Angeles and Long Beach want to double the current fee for daytime trucking moves to incentivize more nighttime moves and help relieve crippling congestion at the ports.

Strong growth in imports and a slight decline in exports over the past few years have thrown off the once balanced import-export flow in the US Gulf Coast, exposing Houston to the same terminal space issues and equipment imbalances that have plagued other import-dependent ports in 2021

Port managers and terminal executives in Los Angeles-Long Beach look to emergency fees on long-dwell containers and sweeper ships to vacate empty boxes as their best bet to relieve congestion amid record vessel arrivals.

The Port of Boston will be without an Asia direct service through most of January because the vessels in the service have been severely delayed by Savannah congestion.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is looking at how it can withstand climate change and not contribute to it through a series of initiatives that include reviewing port operations.

A clean truck fee in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is expected to generate more than $90 million, money that will be used in part to provide direct grants to truckers for zero-emission vehicles.

Although there are still more than 20 vessels anchored outside of Savannah, the Georgia Ports Authority said terminal fluidity has greatly improved compared with two months ago.

The California Chamber of Commerce urged the state’s lawmakers to enact a variety of measures that aim to relieve the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach of severe container congestion.

LA and LB harbor commission approve a 90-day change in its tariff during which time they will charge large fees to carriers, which will likely be passed on to shippers, on excessive-dwell containers.

A new agreement between California and the Biden administration seeks a more unified approach and “innovative” federal financing for port infrastructure projects that could speed goods inland.

Mediterranean Shipping Co. and Ocean Network Express are adding Oakland calls to their Asian services as the vessel congestion at the port abates.

Union Pacific Railroad plans on running longer trains from Long Beach to Utah as the Port of Long Beach works with Utah Inland Port Authority to move more containers onto rail.

With retailers failing to respond to incentives designed to mitigate excessive container dwell times on the docks, Los Angeles and Long Beach will hit carriers with punishing storage fees that the lines say they will pass on to their customers.

Global Container Terminals is adding another berth at its terminal in Bayonne, New Jersey, that would have cranes capable of handling ultra-large container ships.

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach will levy costly fees on containers with excessive dwell times in a bid to clear the mounting backlog of vessels at anchor off Southern California.

The Port of Charleston will not open its new chassis pool in May 2022, delaying the launch by six months because manufacturers and lessors cannot supply the volume of chassis in time.

Duluth Seaway Port Authority has become the second Great Lakes port with the ability to handle international sea freight with the expansion of a container examination facility.

The South Carolina Ports Authority wants to tap more shippers of consumer goods by speeding the flow of containers off its terminals and making transloading sites more available.

Jim Newsome will step down in mid-2022 after 13 years of serving as chief executive officer of South Carolina Ports.

The Georgia Ports Authority has begun offering fixed earliest receiving dates (ERDs) and will sync up cutoff dates with ocean carriers to address two of the top concerns of exporters in Savannah.

Three ocean carriers have decided to temporarily switch US calls to Charleston instead of Savannah as more than 20 vessels are anchored off the Georgia port.

Even as the Biden administration works to ease US port congestion, fresh data on September imports from Asia shows stakeholders have their work cut out for them.

The White House said the Port of Los Angeles will start offering an overnight shift for the retrieval of containers and that major shippers have pledged to utilize the new shift.

Reinstatement of the Ocean Network Express trans-Pacific service to Oakland that ONE canceled earlier this year due to port congestion will add some much-needed vessel capacity to handle agricultural exports.

Truckers were blocked from returning empty containers to NY-NJ marine terminals more than usual in September due to ongoing congestion.

Los Angeles-Long Beach ports say they still need more buy-in from shippers to participate in projects designed to increase cargo velocity after 15 months of congestion and little sign of relief for the months ahead.

The Port of Virginia’s modernization program is 80 percent complete and due to finish in 2022, which will provide a newer chassis fleet that is less likely to break down on a highway.

The Port of Virginia has seen increasing delays for rail-bound ocean containers due to Norfolk Southern’s metering of traffic.

Container terminals in the Port of New York and New Jersey will start charging truckers who miss appointments, citing the need to recoup the costs of staging containers for pickup.

Industry leaders have observed in recent weeks that despite efforts by individual ports to address congestion issues, the biggest impact on fluidity of cargo movements will come from an easing of demand.

The import surge in Seattle-Tacoma this past month has filled local warehouses beyond capacity, crippling the transportation supply chain in the Pacific Northwest.

Canada’s largest pension fund is taking full ownership of Ports America as the fund seeks to increase its exposure to US markets and trade.

The ports of Prince Rupert and Vancouver have not matched the rapid growth of US West Coast ports this year, but they are free of congestion and ready for any peak-season volumes that come their way.

The Georgia Ports Authority will spend $34 million to purchase an additional 40 acres of property adjacent to two existing development projects to expand container capacity even further over the next two years.

The Jacksonville Port Authority has awarded a $48.8 million construction contract that represents the beginning of a larger expansion at the Blount Island Terminal as it readies to handle larger ships.

The Port of New York and New Jersey on Monday reported the highest number of container ships at anchor all year as land-side congestion and the inability to quickly fetch containers off terminals add to delays.

Chassis providers warn that only the easing of import volumes, and the resulting reversal of rising dwell times, will relieve tightness in equipment supply as production capacity is maxed out.

With capacity out of Oakland severely limited by carrier desertions last winter, Northern California agricultural shippers are desperate for vessel space this harvest season.

The Port of New Orleans and other Louisiana ports make an appeal for federal aid to restore operations that were damaged by Hurricane Ida.