Port News

The ocean carrier made the changes ahead of the launch of its partnership with Hapag-Lloyd, referring shippers to the new alliance’s services as an alternative.

New services entered the trade last year amid elevated rates and high demand, but a seasonal lull is putting pressure on prices with plentiful space now on the lane.

Just ahead of November’s election, then-Commissioner Sola laid out “America First” initiatives during an October speech, highlighting the further development of LNG export facilities and the fuel’s impact on ship bunkering.

A new report from the Biden administration alleges that Beijing has a poor compliance record with the WTO, practices duplicitous trade policies that give the country unfair advantages, and operates with an overall lack of transparency.

The moves by Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM come amid uncertainty about the outlook for the intra-Asia trade, with one analyst suggesting a possible rate war could see prices in the region tumble if there is no summer peak season.

With the president-elect looking to unwind some Biden administration policies, US port operators want to ensure that maritime transportation funding will not be unduly affected.

Shipper-paid spot truck pricing from major US ports rose faster than the average US rate in late 2024 as importers prepared for a potential longshore strike.

A confluence of factors, including vessel bunching at Asian load ports and a pre-Lunar New Year cargo surge, have combined to cause congestion at the port and reduce its railcar availability.

While the draft language of the tentative agreement was not disclosed, the two sides said the deal includes language that covers the contentious issue of port automation and new technologies.

Shippers have long outsourced drayage to third parties, but farming out allocation decisions to managed transportation providers threads the needle between access to capacity and neutrality.

Local freight forwarders believe any extra capacity entering the Indian market from smaller ship operators working around an “opportunistic approach” has the potential to spoil rate recovery efforts by large carriers.

Whereas 2024 was a banner year for US West Coast ports, the pendulum could swing back to East and Gulf coast ports in 2025.

Shippers must weigh the merits of a single-source relationship on drayage through key ports over splitting volume among regional and national carriers, or even brokers.

The charges come as spot rates for ex-Asia cargo into the US have climbed sharply over the past month.

Shippers moving cargo on the inter-Americas lane can expect to see further volume growth in 2025, potentially reflected by increased attention and capacity from carriers.

While the two sides have come to terms on wages, formal negotiations have stalled since mid-November as the union and maritime employers remain stuck on what provisions the deal will include about port automation.

Shanghai and Ningbo are dealing with “serious” congestion, according to a forwarder, while labor shortages in Hamburg are causing berthing delays of up to 10 days.

In addition to any vessel backlogs resulting from a second potential ILA strike on Jan. 15, a major test for East Coast marine terminals will be their ability to handle the revamped carrier networks debuting in early 2025.

The world has become more turbulent and fragmented, with geopolitical events that are beyond the control of any supply chain participants playing an ever-larger role, writes Lars Jensen.

Rates in the eastbound trans-Pacific are surging to peak-season levels as US retailers rush to ship merchandise before many factories in Asia close during the holiday celebrations that begin on Jan. 29.

The considerable intermodal ocean volumes that ordinarily would have moved in 2025 have likely been pulled forward into 2024, writes analyst Larry Gross.

With volumes likely to increase again in 2025, new port infrastructure across the region should help maintain fluidity throughout the coming year.

Industry observers believe carriers on the trade lane could struggle to manage the huge influx of capacity, thus forcing them to undercut each other on pricing to maximize loadings.

Imports are likely to remain robust into January as shippers attempt to beat new tariffs expected to be imposed by the incoming Trump administration while also navigating an early Lunar New Year that begins Jan. 29.

Continuing the steady slide from a late-July peak, average spot rates from West India to the US East Coast have dropped about 20% from the end of November.

The risk of an East and Gulf coast port strike, US tariffs on China, and service disruptions through the launch of new alliances and networks await the industry in the first two months of 2025, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

One additional risk to a threatened strike at US East and Gulf Coast ports, which the container shipping industry did not have in October, is that the potential disruption would come just as new alliance networks are to be phased in, writes analyst Lars Jensen.

Severe weather and a rush of cargo before Lunar New Year celebrations slow Asian factory production are clogging major ports from Tokyo to Shanghai.

Advent eModal, a three-decade landmark provider of fee collection and appointment scheduling at container terminals, has been sold by private equity group Blackstone to air cargo software specialist CargoSprint.

The union’s hardline stance against the further encroachment of automation at US ports received a big boost with the incoming administration saying maritime employers should look to labor to increase capacity and efficiency.

A statement posted by the president-elect on social media Thursday made it clear he stood with the International Longshoremen’s Association and their opposition to automation at ports along the East and Gulf coasts.

Rail-mounted gantry cranes can reduce labor requirements and significantly increase the throughput of marine terminals, but those gains still come at a steep cost, listeners of the Journal of Commerce’s Port Performance North America webcast heard.

The proposed facility at Jinhae, about 25 miles west of downtown Busan, would have nine berths in its first phase capable of handling more than 6 million TEUs annually by 2032.

A consortium of six national labor groups, representing thousands of dockworkers in the country, was to launch an indefinite industrial action from Dec. 17 without the deal.

The Oregon gateway is moving closer to becoming a landlord port after it reached a framework agreement with a third-party operator for its only international container terminal.

Carrier executives who dominate the board of the United States Maritime Alliance tell the Journal of Commerce they are done with what they consider to be an overly passive approach demonstrated in recent months by USMX staff in the face of repeated provocations by ILA leadership.

Industrial projects reliant on imported steel are expected to feel the pinch of an import and quality crackdown in the country.

The extensive frontloading of imports that occurred this fall will keep cargo volumes modest this month, but the vagaries of labor negotiations and new tariffs threaten to disrupt the market in short order.

US maritime regulators are investigating reports that the Spanish government has blocked US-flag Maersk ships carrying military cargoes for Israel from calling Algeciras.

Various labor groups representing dockworkers at the country’s 12 public gateways have threatened to strike if the government fails to follow through on a wage agreement due to financial strains.