Maritime

Dubai-based global terminal operator DP World announced a strong financial performance in 2015 with revenues up 16.3 percent to $3.97 billion and net profit up 30.7 percent to $883 million, driven primarily by the acquisition of Economic Zones World.

The world’s second-largest container manufacturer, Singamas Container Holdings, collapsed to a 2015 net loss of $2.7 million as falling demand for new containers combined with a sharply declining average selling price of its boxes.

Hanjin Shipping will replace its joint pendulum service connecting the U.S. West Coast to Asia and the Mediterranean with an exclusive Hanjin-supplied service as the carrier restructures its network in the face of surplus capacity and weak demand.

NileDutch, a specialized West Africa container line, has acquired the Europe to West Africa services and operations of independent Maersk Line subsidiary Safmarine.

The Obama Administration has made it easier for container services calling the United States to add Cuba as port of call, a small step in unleashing container trade between the two countries that has been stymied by a 56-year trade embargo.

Exports of Brazilian beef jumped by more than a quarter in February year-over-year, which bodes well for the country’s exporters who have already been forecasting a bumper year ahead because of the weak national currency and the lifting of export bans.

The global idle container ship fleet has soared to an all-time high, with rising numbers of larger ships unemployed, driven by a widening demand-supply gap,

The small port here is no threat to the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex’s U.S. import business, but Ensenada’s reliability and ability to get high-tech goods and auto parts to Mexican factories fast — often on the same day of the ship call — has won it cargo from the Goliath just 200 miles to the north.

The 16th Annual TPM Conference in Long Beach generated industry headlines and insights available nowhere else. While those on the ground at the event got the early scoop, we have you covered with these key takeaways from the diverse array of panels and discussions hosted by our talented and experienced team of editors.

Chennai Port Trust in coordination with Container Corporation of India has announced a new trade incentive scheme for rail containers in an attempt to lure shippers away from trucks and in turn alleviate congestion in the harbor.

Kenya’s Port of Mombasa completed phase 1 of its Mombasa Port Development Project, increasing capacity at the large and often-congested East African port by 550,000 twenty-foot-equivalent units.

Terminal operators in Los Angeles-Long Beach appear to be stuck in a new normal of average truck visit times of about 90 minutes, which has been the case now for the past two years, much to the displeasure of harbor truckers who believe a turn time of one hour should be standard.

With memories of last year’s West Coast port disruptions still fresh in their minds, a coalition representing 113 local, state and federal trade associations of beneficial cargo owners on Tuesday urged the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association to begin early discussions on a contract extension.

The U.S. Coast Guard shrugged off suggestions that the rollout of a controversial new container weight regulation is mired in confusion and concern at a congressional hearing Tuesday.

Truckers at DP World-operated International Container Transshipment Terminal, or Vallarpadam, called off a six-day strike that ground inland freight movements to a near-standstill and forced shippers to divert some cargo away from Cochin, India’s southeastern major public harbor.

Rickmers Group posted higher earnings and revenue, driven by the dollar’s rise against the euro, an increase in the number of ships under management, and cost cutting, but a write down in the value of its vessels resulted in a bottom line loss.

Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka has rekindled a long-smoldering controversy over whether the Port of New York and New Jersey’s longshore workforce is diverse enough.

A new all-water container service moving Samsung products from Mexico through the Port of Miami to the Southeast is providing some shippers a cheaper and faster option, shaving off roughly half the time and a quarter of the cost from traditional trucking cross-border options.

A group of 49 shippers associations and supply chain stakeholders is calling on the U.S. Coast Guard to leave unchanged the existing processes for finding and transmitting cargo weight information.

Container traffic at the Port of Miami jumped 20 percent in January, a surge that port officials credited to larger vessels calling at the gateway and roughly $1 billion of investment in portside infrastructure attracting new business.

The extent of the challenge facing Hong Kong in 2016 was underlined by new figures from the Census and Statistics Department of the Special Administrative Region that show a precipitous drop in the port’s total throughput during the final quarter of 2015.

The Asia-Europe container trade faces volatile spot freight rates and sluggish traffic growth through 2016, according to Drewry Shipping Consultants.

Rail freight transport from Kattupalli Port is gaining speed as state-owned intermodal logistics operator Container Corporation of India introduced a new, regular train service from Kattupalli to Bangalore, a major southern inland point, via Concor’s Tondiarpet Inland Container Depot on the outskirts of Chennai, port operator Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone said in a trade announcement.

South Korea’s shipping lines are adding services to Indochina in order to meet current demand and future growth as China’s economic expansion slows and other Northeast Asia economies reach maturation.

A strike by truckers at DP World-operated International Container Transshipment Terminal, or Vallarpadam, in India’s Port of Cochin entered its fifth day on Monday, forcing shippers to reroute some cargo via nearby ports, mostly Tuticorin.

When people think of Port Canaveral, they usually associate it with passenger cruises. Capt. John Murray, the Florida port’s new CEO, said it also has a "phenomenal" future in containers.

The trans-Atlantic built on its reputation as one of the few reliable trades in a troubled container shipping market in 2015, but it faces tough challenges this year that might tarnish its image.

Capt. Chester “Chet” I. Hopkins III, a longtime maritime executive whose posts included vice president of operations at CMA CGM, died Thursday at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. He was 75.

After a flat January, container volume surged by double digits at the Port of Virginia in February, partly thanks to favorable comparisons to last year.

Bobby Olvera, recognized by employers for his aggressive leadership of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 13 in Southern California and by fellow longshoremen for his fierce defense of the waterfront contract, was re-elected this week as president of the largest ILWU local.

Atlantic Container Line will maintain its twice-weekly service at the Port of Halifax with ACL’s new G4 container/roll-on, roll-off ships, under a new contract that runs through 2022.

Container traffic at Gulftainer grew 4 percent year-over-year in 2015, as a strong performance at its two United Arab Emirate facilities helped keep volume growth steady despite weakness in the European and Chinese markets.

Container traffic in Los Angeles last month reached a record high for the month of February at the largest U.S. port, and the strong growth of 42 percent over February 2015 could indicate that 2016 will exceed earlier projections of modest growth this year in the trans-Pacific trades. Neighboring Long Beach’s reaching record monthly volume in February further buoys optimism for import demand.

Trans-Pacific spot rates this week followed the lead of the Asia-Europe trades and approached record lows, most likely signaling yet another year of overcapacity problems in the major east-west trade lanes.

Two people died after a helicopter of Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration crashed as it left a grounded T.S. Lines container ship after dropping off environmental inspectors Thursday, according to the Taipei Times, a local news organization.

AAL and Peter Döhle Schiffahrts-KG will launch a joint semi-liner service using multipurpose vessels with heavy-lift capability between Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

The Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor has subpoenaed numerous longshoremen in an effort to identify the organizers and cause of a Jan. 29 wildcat strike that idled the East Coast’s busiest port.

In an effort to spur trade and economic growth, the government of India has lifted some of the current cabotage provisions that prevent foreign-flag ocean carriers from transporting containers between domestic gateway ports.

Japan’s government is now making final preparations to acquire a significant equity stake in the company operating the ports of Yokohama and Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture to help buoy its international competitiveness.

Global Ports’ container traffic slumped 31 percent and revenue sank 28 percent in 2015 as Russia’s contracting economy and the ruble’s slide continued to take its toll on the nation’s largest port operator.