Ports

Even though port congestion has cleared and a longshore labor deal has been reached, ag shippers say intractable problems still plague their ability to move goods easily through the West Coast.

William Doyle’s departure after three years, announced to Maryland Port Administration employees Friday according to local news reports, came less than a week after he received three traffic citations.

Louisiana’s state legislators made a surprise cut to funding the Port of New Orleans planned to use for the design and planning of a new $1.5 billion mega-terminal.

In addition to a 32% increase in dockworker wages over the life of the six-year deal, the tentative US West Coast longshore labor agreement includes a one-time $70 million bonus for staying on the job during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some inland logistics services have resumed, but vessel movements at the ports of Pipavav and Mundra remain suspended due to disruption stemming from Cyclone Biparjoy.

With demand in ports and rail hubs weak, chassis providers are turning their attention to refurbishing older, less-reliable units, a process that is expected to take years to complete.

After 13 months of contentious negotiations that spawned numerous job actions by dockworkers, the ILWU and waterfront employers will engage in a ratification process expected to take several months.

Labor woes along the West Coast over the past year highlighted a stark difference: Shippers on the East and Gulf coasts are customers whose business is valued, while West Coast shippers are not customers in the traditional sense, but more like helpless bystanders, writes Peter Tirschwell.

Most big US ports are closing out the first half of 2023 with year-on-year double-digit volume declines as retail sales falter, but the West Coast labor deal may spark a seasonal uptick.

Refrigerated warehousing construction is “exploding” in the US Southeast, as one port executive put it, thanks to a growing population and increased demand for imported produce and other food products.

The deal, subject to ratification by both parties, ends 13 months of contentious negotiations marked by on-again, off-again job actions that disrupted port operations on the West Coast and diverted growing volumes of cargo to the East and Gulf coasts.

Minor progress in West Coast longshore talks came as ports operated without significant disruption on the first shift Wednesday, but were not completely spared some measure of labor action by workers.

More supply chain disruptions are imminent for Indian containerized trade as Cyclone Biparjoy, a storm that is expected to make landfall Thursday, has now forced major ports on the western coastline to shut.

Two major chassis lessors have committed to spending hundreds of millions of dollars to inject high-quality equipment to haul containers in five southern states.

The two sides will attempt to use the apparent truce brokered by Labor Secretary nominee Julie Su to reach agreement on the highly contentious issue of wages, which triggered disruptive job actions by ILWU locals over the past week.

The container shipping market is well down the path toward normalcy, and if current conditions continue for another few months, the surge-related volume overhang will be worked off, writes analyst Larry Gross.

The vote to authorize a strike at Vancouver and Prince Rupert comes as negotiations between the ILWU and maritime employers on the US West Coast appeared to hit a new low over the weekend.

Disruption flared at West Coast ports as the Biden administration’s nominee for Labor Secretary flew to San Francisco in a bid to break the impasse in contract negotiations that some fear are rapidly deteriorating.

The Pacific Maritime Association hopes Labor Secretary nominee Julie Su can get ILWU negotiators to move closer to a level of wage increases that puts an agreement within reach.

Talks between the ILWU and maritime employers continued Friday for a third straight day, which sources called a positive indicator with negotiations hitting the 13-month mark this weekend.

Cargo handling was back to normal Thursday in Los Angeles and Long Beach for the first time in a week, but the ports are now struggling with a large vessel backlog after not having sufficient longshore labor.

The Delaware port could be turned over to terminal operator Enstructure, which has committed to advancing the proposed Edgemoor container terminal project.

The Marseille-based carrier continues to grow its terminal portfolio in strategic areas as part of a broad move to control the end-to-end logistics of customer shipments.

The year-on-year gap in monthly import volumes will only narrow as shippers start to ramp up back-to-school and seasonal product ordering, says the National Retail Federation.

The latest labor-related port disruptions along the West Coast came as coastwide contract negotiations between the ILWU and the Pacific Maritime Association were scheduled to resume Wednesday.

Shippers diverting goods away from the West Coast typically like what they see: Ports up and down the East and Gulf coasts that have invested significantly to handle growth, are customer-focused, take fluidity seriously and have experienced virtually no labor disruption since the late 1970s.

The International Maritime Organization has an opportunity next month to set more aggressive goals to slash carbon emissions, which could send a powerful signal to stakeholders needing direction, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

US consumers are still spending, but at a slower rate, and that’s pushing major restocking of goods further toward the back half of 2023, analysts and retailers say.

The disruptions happening now are a repeat of events in April when ILWU locals up and down the coast slowed cargo handling to gain leverage on local issues, which prevented coastwide negotiators from addressing broader issues such as wages and pension benefits.

The ports of Boston and Halifax are getting additional trans-Atlantic coverage through a new rotation on Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s north-south service from Ecuador.

Perhaps Robin Silvester’s biggest accomplishment leading the port was shepherding the early stages of the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 project, which cleared a major environmental hurdle last month and will double Vancouver’s annual throughput capacity.

ILWU Canada rank-and-file will vote later this week on whether to issue a 72-hour strike notice, raising the unprecedented prospect of disruption on Canada’s West Coast amid job actions by labor along the US West Coast.

The White House said it was monitoring the fast-developing situation along the West Coast, while a major retail organization urged the Biden administration to intervene and warned about the ongoing diversion of cargo to the East and Gulf coasts.

Two stevedoring companies are looking to the Federal Maritime Commission to stop what they say is an unlawful access fee at the Port of Baltimore after one of them was invoiced $1.2 million.

The Container Port Performance Index for 2022 showed that among large ports, China’s Yangshan ranked No. 1, while Ningbo and Guangzhou were among the top 10.

With international rail volume down by double-digit percentages in 2023, chassis providers have an opportunity to reflect on the struggles of 2021 and 2022 and adjust their networks ahead of the next surge.

The ILWU Friday shut down some terminals at West Coast ports after coastwide contract negotiations broke down Thursday because the union and employers are reportedly far apart on wages.

The first chassis for a new equipment pool covering the ports of Jacksonville, Savannah, and Wilmington, NC, arrived this week, the first step ahead of an October launch.

Vineyard Wind is one of the first commercial-scale offshore wind projects under construction in the US and at completion will generate some 800 megawatts of power.

The railroad is reducing demurrage fees and restoring additional free time that was eliminated in the past two years as international intermodal volumes have fallen sharply from East Coast ports.