Port News

West Coast ports today are capable of handling the water and landside demands that the current generation of big ships are making on their infrastructure, but they must spend billions of additional dollars to accommodate even bigger container ships that will call there in the next few years.

It certainly didn’t get wide play, but when President Obama spoke about the transformation of an industrial warehouse during his February State of the Union Address, the message to supply chain interests rang loud and clear. “A once-shuttered warehouse is now a state-of-the art lab where new workers are mastering the 3D printing that has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything,” he said.

The Port of Oakland is one of the busiest reefer ports in the country. That it’s close to California’s Central Valley growing area and the last port of call for a number of carriers before vessels head back to Asia are two of the main reasons for its reefer growth.

APM Terminals and Rotterdam dock unions have agreed on a labor contract for Europe’s biggest container terminal, which will open next year.

The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor has scheduled a series of public hearings to highlight what commission official contend are discriminatory hiring practices for longshore workers in the Port of New York and New Jersey.

Transportation and warehousing businesses added 23,000 jobs in September, mostly in transit and passenger transportation, as total nonfarm employment increased by 148,000 jobs, the U.S. Labor Department said on Oct. 22.

The Port of Virginia handled more than 185,185 TEUs in September, putting the port’s year-to-date volume growth at 6.3 percent.

All terminals at the Port of Oakland are operational today, after protesting truckers shut down much of the port yesterday, according to Jean Banker, deputy executive director and acting maritime director.

Steel export shipments through the Port of Mobile are growing so strongly that the Alabama State Port Authority is building a big new steel terminal to handle shipments of steel coil.

The Port of Long Beach reported its September container volume was 587,114 TEUs, up 14.7 percent compared with the same month last year.

Port of Oakland managers were bracing for possible trouble Tuesday morning, uncertain whether protesting truckers who shut much of the port down on Monday would return to disrupt operations for a second day.

The Port of Portland will market its strategic position as an export gateway as it seeks to attract other trans-Pacific carriers to replace Hanjin Shipping Co., which told port officials at the weekend it plans to discontinue its weekly service.

It’s going to be some time before ocean carriers, trucking companies and equipment owners build a new chassis model as ship lines retreat from the business of providing the wheeled intermodal equipment. During the transition, technology providers such as IAS are providing ocean carriers, motor carriers and chassis owners with the capabilities to operate.

Hanjin Shipping plans to leave the Port of Portland, Ore., to cut costs, putting the port’s container terminal and regional economy at risk, The Oregonian reports.

An arbitrator’s ruling that forced striking Baltimore longshoremen back to work on containers and roll-on, roll-off cargo has implications for other East and Gulf Coast ports still negotiating local issues not covered by a coastwide master contract.

International Longshoremen’s Association workers agreed Friday to return to work for 90 days while negotiators work on a local contract that triggered a three-day strike this week at the Port of Baltimore.

An arbitrator ruled Friday that an International Longshoremen’s Association local in Baltimore violated a no-strike clause in a coastwide master contract covering work on containers and roll-on, roll-off cargo.

Striking Baltimore longshoremen resumed working Friday on containers and roll-on, roll-off cargo covered by a coastwide master contract while arbitration proceedings continued, a management official said.

Striking longshoremen continued to shutter the Port of Baltimore for a third day on Friday.

The number of foreign trade containers handled by the Port of Kobe in western Japan fell 1.1 percent in the first half of 2013 from a year earlier to about 1.019 million 20-foot-foot equivalent units, according to preliminary figures released by the Kobe municipal government.

Re-shoring, near-shoring, near-sourcing. Whatever you call it, the terms to describe the shift of manufacturing closer to destination markets in North America may be a permanent part of the logistics lexicon and supply chains in general.

Jimmy Lyons is on a hunt for a lot more empty import containers to load with all the export cargo funneling through the Port of Mobile.

A longshoremen’s union local and employer representatives plan to meet with an arbitrator on Oct. 18 to try to resolve a strike that idled public docks at the Port of Baltimore for a second day today.

A longshoremen’s strike that has idled the Port of Baltimore continued into its second day today.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott pledged that he would ask the Florida legislature to include $14.7 million in funding for Port Everglades’ Southport Turning Notch project.

A U.S. district court in Oregon on Oct. 15 issued a preliminary injunction intended to prevent the International Longshore and Warehouse Union from picketing a barge company that shuttles grain on the Snake and Columbia rivers to the Marubeni-Columbia Grain elevator in Portland.

SHENZHEN, China — JOC Group Inc., parent company of The Journal of Commerce and joc.com, on Wednesday recognized APM Terminals Yokohama as the world’s most productive terminal for 2012.

The Port of Baltimore was closed today when International Longshoremen’s Association members went on strike following a breakdown in protracted contract negotiations with the Steamship Trade Association of Baltimore.

Italy faces a 24-hour port strike on Nov. 8 as the country’s three main labor unions attempt to break a deadlock in negotiations for a new labor contract.

Re-shoring production to the United States will mean less import volume for container lines but allow them to reduce empty container repositioning for exports, said Bronson Hsieh, vice group chairman of Evergreen Group.

Containerized imports in Los Angeles continued to build in September for the peak shipping season, reaching a monthly high of 370,785 20-foot-equivalent container units.

The South Carolina Ports Authority handled 133,011 20-foot-equivalent units in September, partially driving a 3.3 percent increase in container volume in the first quarter of fiscal year 2014.

Rich Dines wants more reefer cargo moving across the docks in Long Beach.

Zim’s special cargo team has handled a shipment of a 100-ton, 92-foot-long yacht, shipped on board the Zim Ontario from Asia to Port of Savannah.

Construction of Liverpool2, the Port of Liverpool’s deep water container terminal, has entered a new phase, as steel piling gets underway in the River Mersey.

Tim Waggott has been named as chief executive of the Port of Dover, according to the U.K. port’s harbor board.

There’s little good news coming out of Washington these days. The federal government partially shut down at the beginning of the month after a stalemate in Congress over funding President Obama’s health care reform law. Congress and the Obama administration failed to address long-term fiscal issues, allowing the federal budget sequestration — the proverbial gun pointed to its own head — to fire.

Container traffic at major ports in India tumbled 4.5 percent year-over-year in the first half of fiscal year 2013-14, but total cargo throughput was up 2.3 percent...

APM Terminals has signed a $460 million contract with a Dutch consortium to build the first phase of a deep water container terminal in Costa Rica.