Marine terminals

Trucking companies rushed to remove containers at East and Gulf coast ports before a Tuesday strike as nearby yards swell with container equipment and chassis.

The strike will affect about 40% of Montreal’s container capacity and comes as port employers remain in protracted talks with the longshore union over a new contract.

The White House may finally be looking to take a firmer hand in stalled talks between the ILA and maritime employers with an expected strike just days away.

The global bank also said in a report that West Coast ports would only be able to handle less than 20% of cargo diverted from the East and Gulf coasts, while Mexico and Canada would offer almost no relief.

Pacific Northwest ports and their terminal operators say they are positioned to handle an extended period of discretionary cargo diversions if a strike by ILA dockworkers begins next week.

Ocean carriers and marine terminals allege the International Longshoremen’s Association is violating US labor law by refusing to return to contract negotiations that haven’t been held since June.

The facility, which is 30% owned by the Maersk terminal unit APM Terminals, is the largest relay port in the Gemini Asia-to-Europe hub-and-spoke network that aims to redefine the concept of container shipping reliability.

The plans come amid the increasing likelihood that the International Longshoremen’s Association will not reach an agreement with the United States Maritime Alliance on a new master contract covering East and Gulf coast dockworkers.

Nearly 30 ships are bound for the Port of New York and New Jersey as marine terminals and ocean carriers prepare for a possible dockworker strike.

Despite record import volumes in August, marine terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are experiencing minimal congestion, with elevated rail container dwell times the only problem area.

Port users are concerned that if the technology and infrastructure needed to support a zero-emission environment is not built out, the industry’s only recourse will be to cap cargo volumes at Los Angeles and Long Beach.

The contingency plans by the ports come as some ocean carriers are cutting off new export bookings ahead of the possible work stoppage and issuing surcharges for cargo en route to ports that may be closed on Oct. 1.

The port, at the confluence of the Rhine and Ruhr rivers, is in the industrial heartland of Germany and a key transshipment point for intermodal cargo in Northern Europe.

The shippers were joined this time by a group of House Republicans, who in a separate letter warned of the “dire impacts” to the US economy from a possible port strike.

Ports and ocean carriers are now figuring out the playbook for how to handle what would be the first strike to hit the US East and Gulf coasts in nearly half a century.

The report aims to bolster the case for heightened cyber-security efforts at US ports, which the congressmen who authored the report say are vulnerable to Chinese espionage.

East and Gulf coast maritime employers laid out their terms for signing a new contract with longshore workers, but they warned the ‘signal’ to strike is clear.

The International Longshoremen’s Association is starting to coordinate local labor actions as its executive leaders note the ongoing “impasse” in talks with maritime employers.

Cargo Services will expand the global port operator’s reach in Asia across a range of industry verticals.

While some customers worry rail container dwell times could worsen, port stakeholders say they are accustomed to the ebb and flow and can manage the recent import surge.

Canada’s western ports have little capacity to handle idled intermodal cargo should railroad workers strike, but eastern ports have more space to manage any delays.

Many European shippers are locked into the peak season that will extend the high volume of Asian imports through the third quarter despite the early movement of orders to mitigate disruption from the longer Red Sea routing.

Container lines calling in Tacoma say the congestion is being caused by a surge in import volumes and a shortage of rail cars that is likely to last at least through August.

Maritime employers say they are offering dockworkers along the East and Gulf coasts a better deal than the one received by their West Coast counterparts last year, but the union says the proposal is inadequate.

The $83 million project, which took two years to complete, adds another 455,000 TEUs of annual on-dock rail capacity at NIT.

The disclosure of a 76% wage increase proposal comes as ILA sent a 60-day notice to the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) warning that the union is prepared to strike if a new labor deal is not signed before the current contract’s Sept. 30 expiration.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is looking to create more space for container operations with a multi-year project to move dry bulk operations from one port area to another.

The port was able to clear all the recently anchored vessels, helped by a temporary reopening of all Wando Welch’s berths last week amid a 10-day pause in project work.

It was only when assets stopped circulating that ocean carrier profits took off, thanks to containers stranded on idle ships that lined up outside of congested ports during the worst of the pandemic disruption.

The Biden administration’s attempts to build a homegrown crane industry due to cybersecurity concerns drew little interest from the National Association of Waterfront Employers, which doesn’t see a threat from Chinese-made cranes.

The agency’s detention and demurrage rules are still unclear as to billing those charges to truckers, according to challenges put forth by ocean carriers.

The International Longshoremen’s Association said it has called off talks for a new six-year labor agreement due to automation efforts at Maersk-operated marine terminals.

Carriers and forwarders said the average berthing delay is three to five days at Southeast Asia’s leading container gateway, but HMM and ONE said they are experiencing more than that.

The move by the port’s Board of Commissioners opens the door to the modernization of the Everport-operated Ben E. Nutter Terminal so the 90-acre facility can accommodate post-Panamax ships and potentially expand.

While the lower dwells are promising, some trucking and logistics executives say terminal operators in Los Angeles and Long Beach have not yet fully adjusted to the rise in import volumes, especially considering projections for an early start to peak shipping season.

Yusen Terminals in Los Angeles is already holding twice its normal inventory of rail containers and is draying some of the boxes to a near-dock storage yard to prevent the backlog from interfering with cargo handling operations.

The port said it was not able to secure an operator for its marine terminal, which was critical to securing further state aid to run the port through the rest of 2024.

The $11 million program that seeks to increase schedule reliability and volumes comes as the Seattle-Tacoma gateway saw its share of US imports from Asia decline year over year in February.

The import strength goes beyond restocking, showing the impact of a recovery in housing and the US manufacturing resurgence, writes Peter Tirschwell.

Some of the 18 container ships that were due to arrive at the now-closed Port of Baltimore over the next couple of weeks are now scheduled for new calls at New Jersey, Norfolk and Philadelphia.