North American ports

The surge, however brief, will nonetheless be a welcome boost in business for the ports after a lackluster May and early June.

The fees come as dwell times for refrigerated containers in Houston exceed a week and reefer volumes topped 10,000 TEUs for the first time in three years.

Internal and external forces in the first half of 2025 mitigated container vessel overcapacity, but steep challenges lie ahead, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

With little relief forthcoming, cargo owners need to build delays into their shipping plans as port and ship capacity remain tight, speakers at the Agriculture Transportation Coalition’s annual meeting said.

But sources do not think carriers will have an opportunity to net full recovery of the proposed amounts in the current market environment unless strategic capacity cuts occur.

A more than 30% one-week drop in rates from Asia to the US West Coast is showing that the import rush sparked by the temporary pause in higher US tariffs will apparently be short-lived.

Despite ongoing efforts to clear out logjams triggered by the brief work stoppage, berth waiting times for vessels arriving at the country’s busiest port have risen to their highest this year.

The China-based liners carried a combined 1.09 million TEUs in imports to the US through April, up 23% over the same period in 2024, according to Journal of Commerce rankings.

A wide-ranging report commissioned by Canada’s Labor Ministry says British Columbia’s ports are vulnerable to strikes in part because of disparate longshore unions involved in contract talks.

A widening spread between the West and East coasts comes as carriers have added fresh capacity, especially to Southern California, to take advantage of what had been a sharp jump in demand and rates following the US pause on higher tariffs against China.

A trio of bills would change US shipping law to reflect the current wariness surrounding China’s maritime industry and promote cargo preference for US fleets.

TRAC Intermodal, DCLI and FlexiVan Leasing began unstacking chassis shortly after the Trump administration last month announced a 90-day pause on the 145% tariffs on Chinese imports.

Because the West Coast’s share is higher for China-originating freight than any other region, any move away from China by importers can be expected to negatively affect the USWC’s share of inbound cargo, writes Larry Gross.

Maritime employers along Canada’s West Coast have a new agreement that will avert the type of labor actions seen late last year.

The terminal operator said it has reduced the inventory of rail-bound containers at its Elizabeth facility to about 1,600, down from about 4,000 in early May.

While terminal operators had hoped that problems stemming from the mid-May work stoppage would be mostly over, forwarders are still reporting cargo delays.

That the port is the largest transshipment hub makes it convenient for carriers to transship cargo as they redeploy vessels from European and other long-haul trades to US-focused services.

Within a span of roughly 24 hours, one court decision blocked the US tariffs and a separate ruling restored the tariffs through June 9, if not longer.

The industry says consistency and communication are the key to minimizing disruption to port traffic during the project to repair the deck of the Vincent Thomas Bridge.

A portion of the money will be used for Project 11, which will ultimately allow an additional 1,400 vessels of all types to call the port each year by deepening portions of the channel to accommodate larger ships. 

The US Court of International Trade on Wednesday stated that President Donald Trump’s tariffs exceed his authority.

The Cedar Port industrial park and barge port says the construction of a new ship channel could pave the way for potential development of a container terminal at the site.

Carriers may find it difficult to bring trans-Pacific capacity back quickly because they repositioned ships into other trades outside of the region amid the tariff-linked demand drop in April and early May.

Matt Schrap, who has headed the HTA for the past four years, told the Journal of Commerce he is transitioning to another job but will remain with the group through late August.

Importers can get a fairly good sense of how to proceed over the next few months based on developments to date, but things will get fuzzy when the separate cooldown periods for tariffs on China and the rest of the world expire this summer, writes Lars Jensen.

The Port of Los Angeles took the top spot for containerized imports in 2024 and edged out Houston and Savannah as the busiest gateway for exports.

Under their current configuration, the newest round of tariffs targeting China’s maritime industry will add $7 billion in costs for US ports, according to one estimate.

The Zim Central China Xpress will restart next week, little more than a month after Zim announced its suspension as part of the carrier’s broader 30% to 35% trim in its trans-Pacific network.

Industry backlash mitigated the costliest components of the US Trade Representative’s proposed fees, but surcharges from some carriers are still likely on the way, writes Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

Rates are climbing quickly amid fresh Chinese volumes headed to the US, with an expected crunch in vessel capacity and the potential for port congestion driving the gains. 

The predicted rush to get US imports from China on the water has begun as shippers take advantage of the 90-day cut in tariffs, according to CEO Rolf Habben Jansen.

The world’s largest shipping company said Wednesday the service suspensions and network changes were “in response to the recent changes in demand for cargo transport from Asia to the US.”

PSA BDP acquired a majority stake in Mexico-based forwarder ED International, expanding PSA’s cross-border forwarding network.

Interest in FTZs, where shippers can store goods while deferring the payment of duties, has increased dramatically since President Donald Trump implemented tariffs in April.

The Los Angeles-Long Beach complex, which handles about half of all US imports from Asia, is so far due to experience 59 blanked sailings between May 1 and June 30.

With demand expectations faltering, carriers have either jettisoned or substantially lowered the increases they were planning to implement beginning May 1, forwarder sources tell the Journal of Commerce.

US ports and support infrastructure such as warehouses and rail connections aren’t better equipped to handle import surges than they were during the pandemic when record volumes drove congestion to historic highs, carrier executives said this week.

Direct services to Asia and the EU have pulled more resin cargoes away from Houston, but the Gulf Coast is still the main route to the South American market.

Container lines saw a first-quarter demand boost from US shippers eager to bring in cargo before the April implementation of the Trump administration’s tariffs.

With far fewer US-bound goods leaving Chinese docks, carriers have accelerated the raft of blank sailings and service suspensions that began earlier this month, sources tell the Journal of Commerce.