Port News

The Port of Rotterdam Authority has signed a partnership agreement with the Indonesian Port Corporation Pelindo I for the development of a new deep sea port at Kuala Tanjung.

A consortium comprising Bolloré Africa Logistics, CMA CGM, and China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) has been awarded the coveted 20-year concession to operate the new container terminal at the deepwater port of Kribi in Cameroon.

The South American container port of Santos notched up a treble dose of good news this week, announcing construction on a new access roads, an outer ring road and emergency dredging that will ease delays and free up the flow of containers in and out of the busy port.

South Florida ports are readying themselves for gale force winds and a downpour of rain as Tropical Storm Erika prepares to make landfall in the Sunshine State this Monday.

Hutchison Ports Australia and the Maritime Union of Australia agreed Friday to return to the negotiating table, preventing a looming court action and paving the way to an end of a bitter fight over layoffs at Hutchinson’s Brisbane and Sydney terminals.

The California Trucking Association tied its support of truck appointments at Los Angeles-Long Beach container terminals to creation of port-wide metrics to gauge the appointments’ effectiveness.

A senior transportation official in Tianjin, China was found dead Wednesday after falling from his office.

The development of Port Louis will not only accommodate increasing container traffic, but also mitigate the likely impact of the cyclonic weather to which the country of Mauritius is prone, giving shippers more reliability.

Global terminal operator DP World reported a 22 percent increase in net profit during the first half of 2015 but said it expects growth to slow amid a “challenging” global economy during the rest of year.

The U.S. Coast Guard said that “out of an abundance of caution,” it will monitor arriving ships and containers that were in Tianjin when the Chinese port was rocked by explosions earlier on Aug. 12

Gateway Terminals India, or APM Terminals Mumbai, said it is taking all the necessary steps to speed up its gate activity that has drawn complaints from logistics providers operating in Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, the country’s busiest container gateway.

In a high-risk, possibly high-reward attempt to manage truck flow and reduce congestion, 10 of the 13 container terminals in Los Angeles-Long Beach on Thursday adopted a trucker appointment system action plan with the goal of establishing a system of appointments throughout the harbor beginning in 2016.

Tianjin Port Group chief executive officer Zheng Qingyue has been accused of dereliction of duty by China’s highest prosecutions agency after an investigation into the huge Tianjin blasts that killed at least 145 people earlier this month.

The Indonesian government has set up a task force faced with the daunting goal of slashing container dwell times by more than half at the country’s largest port of Tanjung Priok in Jakarta.

The Port of New York-New Jersey posted double-digit container growth again in July, breaking the import record it set in May and illustrating how U.S. West Coast diversions are positioning the top U.S. East Coast port for a healthy peak season.

New Jersey officials say the driver of a top loader was drunk when the heavy equipment struck and killed a dockworker at APM Terminals’ facility in the Port of New York and New Jersey earlier this month.

An explosion and fire that devastated the Chinese port of Tianjin, the 10th-busiest global container gateway, could cost the insurance industry more than $2 billion, making it one of the most expensive maritime disasters ever, according to a London market underwriter.

Gulftainer has appointed a former Maersk Line and DP World executive as CEO of its international operations as the container terminal operator expands its global footprint.

Dredging of the 102.5-mile river channel to 45 feet is just one of many projects under way as Philadelphia and other Delaware River ports build new terminals that can handle various cargoes or rev up long-postponed plans for new terminals.

The Port of Hueneme has been awarded nearly $1.5 million in U.S. federal dollars to its infrastructure in the hopes of boosting imports and exports — specifically to and from Central and Latin America — through the Southern California port.

The Chinese government will slash seven shipping-related charges beginning in October in an effort to jump start trade as the government grapples with an economic slowdown.

Logistics providers out of Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust continue to report excessive truck delays and serious yard congestion at terminals in India’s biggest container gateway, largely the result of a freight buildup following the week-long shutdown of APM Terminals-operated Gateway Terminals India.

Hutchison Ports Australia has attempted to clarify its position in an increasingly bitter dispute with Maritime Union Australia and mounting outrage following reports that the 97 sacked workers were fired via text message and e-mail.

The Port of Oakland’s announcement last week that it intends to open its terminal gates an extra day each week demonstrates two hard, cold facts about U.S. port operations in this era of big ships. The traditional menu of five weekday gates each week is no longer adequate to handle today’s cargo volumes, but extra gates cost money, and someone — often the shipper — has to pick up the tab.

Strikes, partial strikes and slowdowns by Brazilian customs officers are continuing this week, but the effect on most shippers has been muted.

The Port of Virginia has deployed three hybrid shuttle carriers — the first of their kind in the U.S. — at its Virginia International Gateway terminal.

Malaysia-listed port operator Bintulu Port Holdings warned softness in the domestic container market could further crimp profit, which fell 31 percent year-over-year to 4.9 million in second quarter.

Shippers and ocean carriers at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust are bracing themselves for more delays and disruptions next week as unionized dockworkers at India’s biggest container gateway prepare to join a 24-hour general strike call issued by all major labor federations in the country.

Cosco Pacific is expecting a volatile second half of the year amid fierce competition in the container terminals and leasing business and has warned that the challenging operating environment will slow its throughput.

Two cranes that arrived last week at Russia’s new deep-sea Port of Bronka will allow the port serving nearby St. Petersburg to better handle post-Panamax vessels.

Increasing container demand of 4.5 percent annually through 2019 and the cascading of larger ships on to smaller trades will require marine terminals to invest to handle another 168 million 20-foot equivalent units.

U.S. West Coast congestion roiled retailer rollouts of spring product lines even after employers and longshoremen ended their showdown in late February, executives told investors during recent second-quarter earnings calls.

Mayor Ras Baraka of Newark, New Jersey, says his financially strapped city wants more money and jobs from the East Coast’s largest port.

Asian and Middle Eastern ports in 2014 were the most efficient in handling ships at berth than any other ports in the world, according to JOC Port Productivity data. But what about the 10 ports at the bottom of the barrel in terms of port productivity? Analysis of more than 125,000 port calls in 2014 shows the following ports ranked as least efficient for the year.

IBM and the Port Authority of Singapore are working to tap so-called Big Data to improve productivity and maritime safety at the major transshipment hub.

The Port of Oakland “strongly supports” its marine terminals’ plans for Saturday truck gate operations but has two big concerns,Chris Lytle, port executive director, told the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission.

Sydney is poised dethrone Melbourne as Australia’s No. 1 container port, thanks to its inland rail connectivity that got a boost from government investment.

The backlog of containerized freight that built up over the past three weeks following the week-long shuttering of APM Terminals’ Gateway Terminals India is wreaking havoc on supply chains at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India’s busiest container handler, according to local logistics providers.

The newly-formed alliance of the ports of Seattle and Tacoma increased their container throughput nearly 8 percent in July and grabbed a bit of market share from their Canadian competitors.