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West Coast ports will enter the new year with the same congestion problems and labor uncertainty that plagued them for much of 2014.

The Harbor Trucking Association of Southern California called upon all supply chain participants to work together to make the newly-opened depot for empty equipment a success, or it will not fulfill its purpose of relieving congestion at marine terminals.

Spot rates on the trans-Pacific have dropped nearly 20 percent in the two weeks following a historically high general rate increase, new data from Drewry Maritime Research shows.

Brazil has appointed a new Minister for Ports, Edinho Araujo, in a move that is sowing dissatisfaction among the port community. He who will take over from outgoing minister Cesar Borges on Jan. 5.

Buenos Aires' newest container terminal opened for business this week, amid declining volumes at the port in Argentina's largest city.

Ocean carriers face an uphill struggle to push through planned general rate increases on the Far East-north Europe trade in January amid deteriorating economic conditions at both ends of the world’s biggest liner route.

After two years of preparations, Nippon Express Co. has set up a subsidiary in Myanmar, formerly called Burma, joining a growing army of Japanese transportation, logistics and other firms aiming to cash in on what is widely seen as Asia’s last frontier market.

The lack of detailed financial information on the Nicaragua canal from project leader HKND Group continued this week with the announcement by chairman and CEO Wang Jing that the company was planning to launch an initial public offering to fund the $50 billion waterway.

Western ocean carriers, port operators and freight forwarders are bracing for a slump in Russia’s freight traffic as the nation heads for recession and double-digit inflation in 2015.

The port of Antwerp boosted container traffic 4.5 percent in 2014 to just short of 9 million TEUs, marginally outpacing the 4.2 percent growth in total throughput to a new record high of 198.8 million metric tons.

The year 2015 has not yet begun but is already promising to be one fraught with complexity and unpredictability for beneficial cargo owners in the eastbound trans-Pacific.

The Port of Long Beach on Monday opened a depot where empty containers can be temporarily stored. The depot will ease space constraints at congested marine terminals while also freeing up chassis for use in the harbor area.

The gloves have come off. If there is one issue that the Pacific Maritime Association know will undercut any possible sympathy the International Longshore and Warehouse Union would hope to have from the public, it is how much they make.

The steep fall of bunker fuel in recent months prices slowed over Christmas week, though the price per metric ton still continued to drop.

China Southern Airlines’ executive vice president and chief operating officer for flight operations have been axed on suspicion of “job-related crime”.

The Ecoporto Santos container terminal in Brazil is moving ahead with an expensive equipment upgrade despite not being guaranteed an extension to the company’s port concession period. This comes as competition among the Santos terminals is heating up, with handling rates eroding in 2014.

International Longshore and Warehouse Union President Robert McEllrath has challenged ocean carrier executives to become directly involved in contract negotiations in order to end the impasse that has existed since the previous West Coast waterfront contract expired on July 1.

Vessels on Monday continued to back up at anchor at the Port of Oakland and truck turn times were three hours or longer now that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union has chosen the Northern California port as its latest target for work slowdowns on the West Coast.

So many breakbulk and heavy-lift carriers are losing money that industry analysts expect some smaller carriers to face bankruptcy in 2015 or consolidation with other carriers, at the very least.

The Kenya Ports Authority is seeking operators for a new, $300 million terminal at the Port of Mombasa.

Most terminals at the Port of New York-New Jersey will not extend gate hours in anticipation of cargo backlogs from the New Year holiday, the port authority announced today.

United Liner Agencies (India), part of the Mumbai-based diversified logistics firm J.M. Baxi Group, has been selected to upgrade and operate an existing container terminal at Haldia Dock, a sister facility of Kolkata Port Trust.

UK parcel delivery firm City Link, which filed for bankruptcy last week, will lay off most of its 2,780 employees in the coming days after failing to attract buyers.

Growing e-commerce in the European Union are creating new opportunities for logistics firms but also new liabilities in areas such as product safety, a transport-focused UK law firm argues.

In a significant policy shift, the Japanese government has become the top shareholder of a company operating the Port of Kobe and the Port of Osaka, collectively called the Ports of Hanshin, to help shore up its sagging international competitiveness.

The global container ship fleet could expand by as much as 7.6 percent in 2015 driven by deliveries of extra large vessels and a slump in scrapping of older ships, according to Alphaliner.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (Nhava Sheva), India's largest container gateway, is showing no signs of getting ahead of the congestion problems that have plagued India’s largest container handler for much of 2014.

The Central American canal projects continue to generate questions over funding — where it will come from in the case of the proposed Nicaraguan plan, and where it is going in the Panama Canal upgrade.

CMA CGM on Friday released extensive details of the Ocean Three east-west alliance that it will begin early in 2015 along with United Arab Shipping Co. and China Shipping Container Line.

West Coast newspaper editorials are jumping in on the side of federal mediators joining the stalled West Coast longshore talks, in a sign that public patience is wearing thin as losses mount for importers and exporters amid continuing delays at ports up and down the coast.

NYK Line has teamed up with Gujarat Pipavav Port, an APM Terminals facility on India’s west coast, to build and operate a new dedicated automobile logistics terminal at the Pipavav port complex.

HONG KONG — The Austrlalian operations of DP World will face a tough start to the year after a series of bitter disputes in recent months with local trade unions over pay and working conditions at its four port facilities.

After a year of surging sales of foodstuffs to Russia owing to economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and European Union and retaliatory actions by Russia, Brazil is now possibly the largest supplier of food to Russia, according to the SovEcon consultancy.

The berthing delays that have seen ships back up at anchorage off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach for the past several weeks are now spreading up the coast to Oakland, in a spillover effect from the Southern California congestion.

China, Serbia and Hungary have signed a memorandum of understanding to build a new 230-mile rail link between Belgrade and Budapest with construction work expected to start by the middle of next year.

With the year coming to a close with no end in sight to the delays at West Coast ports, pressure is building for the federal government to intervene in stalled negotiations between longshoremen and employers that are blamed for at least of the congestion.

Signaling that resolution of congestion issues in Southern California is still a ways away, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are taking the additional step of asking the federal government for permission to work together to resolve the worst congestion seen in years at the largest U.S. port complex.

The Port of Long Beach on Monday will open a temporary 30-acre site for empty containers in an attempt to free up chassis and ease congestion that has frustrated shippers for months.

Fresh food is fast becoming the next e-commerce frontier in China, and the country-wide demand is driving the expansion of cold chain logistics in the mainland that has been a weak point for years.

The door to China’s domestic courier market is about to be opened a little wider for foreign service providers, as the State Post Bureau prepares to green light Kerry Logistics and Japanese firms Yamato Logistics and OCS (Overseas Courier Service) to operate in the mainland express market.