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Summary for March 10, 2014 through March 14, 2014:
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Monday, March 10, 2014 Top StoryTrucker strike prevented at Port Metro Vancouver
Port of Portland Terminal 6 reopens ThursdayPort of Portland’s Terminal 6 reopened Thursday after a late-night ruling by a mediator who found no immediate threat to the health and safety of dockworkers. Port of Los Angeles launches search for executive directorA global search to fill the top spot at the Port of Los Angeles was launched this week, according to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners has established an ad hoc search committee to find the port’s next executive director, according to a port statement. U.S. exports top $192B in JanuaryU.S. exports in January totaled $192.5 billion of goods and services, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Commerce Department. Port Metro Vancouver truck driver hit with rockTemperatures are running high in the conflict over truckers protesting terminal delays at Port Metro Vancouver, and a recent assault of a truck driver may be connected to the dispute.
Tuesday, March 11, 2014 Breaking NewsHanjin to remain at Port of Portland
"The Port of Portland's productivity has still not shown any sign of improvement for the past months," Hanjin said in the memo. "We are working closely with the terminal to solve the productivity issues in order to keep the service up and running." Responses on Monday by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and ICTSI Oregon indicate the labor conflict is ongoing. ILWU criticized the port for subsidizing Hanjin with tax revenues and blamed terminal operator ICTSI Oregon's parent company for pressuring labor, government and shipping lines worldwide. The port said it was not using tax money for incentives. ICTSI Oregon said it hoped ILWU would cooperate and ensure the increased productivity of its members. "They're not saying everything is perfect at the terminal," said Sam Ruda, Port of Portland chief commercial officer. "But they'll be reviewing the operations performance on a quarterly basis, and we'll go from there." Hanjin is the biggest container line serving the port, responsible for nearly 80 percent of the volume or approximately 1,600 containers a week at Terminal 6. In February, Gov. John Kitzhaber asked the port to hire a third party to conduct an independent review of Terminal 6 operations to determine the reasons for the equipment shortages and delays. ILWU leaders say they will not participate in the prospective review as they think it will be weighted to benefit the port and ICTSI. "The taxpayers of three Oregon counties have spent more than $10 million in subsidies to entice Hanjin to stay in Portland despite ICTSI's monopolistic generated performance and worldwide business model of squeezing labor, government and carriers," said union spokeswoman Jennifer Sargent said in an email. "ICTSI Oregon Inc. stands ready to work cooperatively with all concerned, including the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, to improve operations at Terminal 6 and ensure that Hanjin will continue calling," said the terminal operation in a statement. "We are hopeful that the ILWU will also cooperate and take steps to improve the productivity of its members and return it to where it was prior to June of 2012, when the labor dispute over the refrigerated containers arose." For more of The Oregonian story: oregonlive.com Port Metro Vancouver union truckers reject mediated deal and strikeDockworkers of the Unifor-Vancouver Container Truckers' Association union are picketing Port Metro Vancouver after voting down a tentative deal brokered by a government mediator Vince Ready. Unifor spokesman Ian Boyko said union members began striking at 7 a.m. Monday. About 300 Unifor members voted unanimously in favor of a strike on March 1 due to chronically long wait times at the port. The union had put off plans for a strike after meeting with Ready on Thursday, when he arranged a tentative agreement between the truck drivers and the port. But those plans evaporated on Saturday when members voted against the agreement. "We've warned the government for years how bad the conditions are," said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor's B.C. area director. He added that although they welcomed Ready's help, his members needed something more immediate to improve their economic position. Ready has been charged to report back to Federal Transportation Minister Lisa Raitt by May 30, but McGarrigle said that's too long a span to await a decision and the union wants Ready to be brought in to mediate with all parties present, noting there is no overarching body that speaks for all truckers at the port. "There's like 180 different employers, there's different unions, non-unions, fake unions and so it's crazy and there's no stability," said McGarrigle. Over 1,000 of non-unionized truckers staged a work stoppage on Feb. 26 to protest long waiting times at Metro Vancouver's four terminals, and low trucking rates. Unifor then announced it would go on strike unless an arbitrator was appointed. "We agree that truckers should be paid a fair wage, but bargaining relating to employment and contract relationships can only be done with the employer or the parties to the contract," said Robin Silvester, president and CEO of the port. "Port Metro Vancouver is not the employer and is not party to the contract relationships." For more of the Vancouver Sun story: vancouversun.com Drewry: Most U.S. East Coast ports not ready for big ships in 2014Drewry says the changes that are coming for the Trans-Atlantic trades in the second quarter of 2014 might mean big trouble for the U.S. East Coast ports that are not quite deep enough for fully laden New Panamax ships and already have strained truck and rail capacities. In Q2 of this year, the proposed port rotations of the G6 and P3 container carrier alliances between Northern Europe and the U.S. East and Gulf coast means the big ships will come to call on the Trans-Atlantic trades, according to the latest issue of Container Insight by Drewry Maritime Research. According to their proposed service line-up, Hapag-Lloyd, OOCL, NYK, HMM, APL and MOL will offer only three jointly run schedules beginning in Q2. Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM will offer another three through the P3 alliance, as well as two between the Mediterranean and U.S. East and Gulf coasts, if the appropriate regulatory bodies grant approval, the story said. Drewry predicts that this might lead to mega ships over 8,000 TEUs replacing currently deployed vessels with capacities between 3,500 and 6,500 TEUs, as long as the USEC and USGC ports can accommodate the larger ships. Part of the problem posed by Container Insight is that many USEC/USGC ports have been preparing for the arrival of deep draught ships of 8,000 TEUs or more starting in mid-2015, when the newly widened Panama Canal is due to open, not Q2 of 2014. On the Trans-Atlantic trades, heavier industrial goods prevail, and both inbound and outbound vessels are often well laden. Fully laden with heavy cargo, a typical 8,000-TEU ship has a draught of around 47 feet, which requires a channel depth of at least 49 feet. This brings attention to the status of dredging projects on the U.S. East Coast. Drewry reports Norfolk and Baltimore are prepared with 50-foot channel depths and the Port of New York/New Jersey has almost completed its 50-foot dredging program. The Bayonne Bridge needs to be raised for 13,000-TEU ships, although vessels up to 9,000-TEUs can currently access the port complex. The remaining main USEC ports would face challenges if fully loaded 8,000-TEU ships were deployed by the G6 and P3 by mid-2014, as their current channel depths range from 40-45 feet. All have channel-dredging projects, but are at different phases. Miami expects to have its 50ft channel completed by 2015 but Savannah, Charleston, Jacksonville and Port Everglades will be at least three years later. Significant for the ports will be the Trans-Atlantic trade rotations, Drewry notes, especially for the ones that become the first call inbound and/or last call outbound. Bigger ships will mean greater volume peaks, which will put greater pressure on truck and rail operations that are already experiencing congestion, long wait times, and the ensuing labor turmoil. According to Container Insight, the G6 is planning 2014 calls in New York/New Jersey, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Port Everglades, New Orleans and Houston, and P3 calls in New York/New Jersey, Boston, Baltimore, Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, Miami, New Orleans, Mobile and Houston. The P3's Mediterranean services will also call at Port Everglades. NRF: March imports to rise 12 percent as retailers prepare for seasonal shiftImport cargo at major U.S. retail container ports is forecast to rise 12.4 percent in March as retailers stock up for the spring and the summer seasons, according to the latest Global Port Tracker report by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. "Retailers are bouncing back from the annual post-holiday slowdown and getting ready for the surge in activity that comes each year as the weather warms up," said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy. "Shelves are going to be well-stocked with everything from bathing suits to barbecues." "Congestion has been a problem for many ports during this slowdown, so operations will need to improve to handle the expected surge in the coming months," Gold added. Cargo movement at some ports has been slowed by severe winter weather and shortages of labor and equipment, the report said. U.S. ports followed by Global Port Tracker handled 1.36 million TEUs in January, up 4.1 percent year-over-year. The GPT forecast for February 2014 is down 8.8 percent year-over-year at 1.17 million TEUs, March is up 12.4 percent at 1.28 million TEUs, April up 5.1 percent at 1.36 million TEUs, May up 3.7 percent at 1.44 million TEUs, June up 5.3 percent at 1.43 million TEUs, and July up 3.4 percent at 1.49 million TEUs, up 3.4 percent. The first half of the year is expected to total 8 million TEUs, up 3.5 percent over last year. The total for 2013 was 16.2 million TEUs, up 2.3 percent from compared with 2012's 15.8 million TEUs. NRF is predicting 4.1 percent sales growth in 2014, depending on how federal policies on economic issues affect consumer confidence. "At the end of the day, it all depends on consumption," Hackett Associates Founder Ben Hackett said. "Somehow, the average consumer needs to be given the economic confidence to go out and spend. Without that, the economy will remain weak and no amount of tinkering by the Federal Reserve will have much of an impact." Global Port Tracker covers the U.S. ports of Los Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, Tacoma, New York/New Jersey, Hampton Roads, Charleston, Savannah, Port Everglades, Miami and Houston. NYK president: Hampton Roads "struggled" to deal with New York/New Jersey overflow in 2013Bill Payne, the president of ocean carrier NYK North America, called out the port at Hampton Roads for not being ready when congestion hit ports nationwide last year. Payne told approximately 2,000 maritime executives at a conference on TransPacific trade that in 2013 when a cargo bottleneck became severe at the Port of New York/New Jersey, he was surprised that the Hampton Roads port struggled to handle the overflow containers rerouted to Norfolk. "There have been some surprising examples of ports that you would have thought would have been more prepared – already had deep water, already had on-dock rail," Payne said. "I think we had a right to believe Norfolk was prepared – let me just say that. And it's proven a struggle for them. So, I think they're attempting to respond, but again, when you start chasing the curve and dealing with volume and you're behind that power curve, it gets very difficult to clear it out." After his talk, Payne told The Virginia Pilot that port executives at Hampton Roads recognized "that this hasn't been their best hour; they're working on it." Payne said his company supports Hampton Roads and its new leadership. For more of The Virginia Pilot story: hamptonroads.com Hong Kong port operators push government for land to up capacityHong Kong port operators are urging the government to consolidate approximately 172 acres of land adjacent to the port to help ease congestion and increase capacity in light of shipping line alliances that will serve to stress a port that is already stretched to its limit. Jessie Chung Wai-yin, chairman of the Hong Kong Container Terminal Operators Association, said terminals are under increasing pressure as shipping alliances expand. "If we don't react quickly enough, the liners will leave for other ports," she said. Bottlenecks and delays at the Hong Kong port are commonplace because it doesn't have the land to boost its operations. Shipping lines are worried about charges increasing due to demurrage. Barges that carry containers to and from the Pearl River Delta for ships are facing two days of delay on average. A port terminal executive said sometimes barges waited for up to four days before berthing during peak seasons. The current major proposed shipping alliances - G6, P3 and CKYHE - account for 70 per cent of capacity on global trade routes. P3 is expected to get U.S. regulatory approval by the end of the month. The terminal association asked the government for the use of land near Terminals 8 and 9 for container storage and to build more barge berths. This would up the port's capacity by 3 to 4 million TEUs per year, almost a fifth of total handlings at the port last year, Chung said. For more of the South China Morning Post story: scmp.com Turkish container ship runs aground off coast of MyconosA Turkish-flagged ship that ran aground on Saturday into rocks off the coast of Myconos is said to contain 200 tons of fuel, and environmental officials with the Greek Coast Guard have been deployed to inspect the ship. The crew abandoned the Yusuf Cepnioglu, which was sailing from Izmir to Tunisia, when it began taking on water after the crash. All 14 sailors are reportedly safe and uninjured. The container ship is still pinned to the rocks, coast guard authorities said on Monday, but so far no leakage has been observed. For more of the ekathimerini.com story: ekathimerini.com
Wednesday, March 12, 2014 Top StoryHanjin to remain at Port of Portland
"The Port of Portland's productivity has still not shown any sign of improvement for the past months," Hanjin said in the memo. "We are working closely with the terminal to solve the productivity issues in order to keep the service up and running." Responses on Monday by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and ICTSI Oregon indicate the labor conflict is ongoing. ILWU criticized the port for subsidizing Hanjin with tax revenues and blamed terminal operator ICTSI Oregon's parent company for pressuring labor, government and shipping lines worldwide. The port said it was not using tax money for incentives. ICTSI Oregon said it hoped ILWU would cooperate and ensure the increased productivity of its members. "They're not saying everything is perfect at the terminal," said Sam Ruda, Port of Portland chief commercial officer. "But they'll be reviewing the operations performance on a quarterly basis, and we'll go from there." Hanjin is the biggest container line serving the port, responsible for nearly 80 percent of the volume or approximately 1,600 containers a week at Terminal 6. In February, Gov. John Kitzhaber asked the port to hire a third party to conduct an independent review of Terminal 6 operations to determine the reasons for the equipment shortages and delays. ILWU leaders say they will not participate in the prospective review as they think it will be weighted to benefit the port and ICTSI. "The taxpayers of three Oregon counties have spent more than $10 million in subsidies to entice Hanjin to stay in Portland despite ICTSI's monopolistic generated performance and worldwide business model of squeezing labor, government and carriers," said union spokeswoman Jennifer Sargent said in an email. "ICTSI Oregon Inc. stands ready to work cooperatively with all concerned, including the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, to improve operations at Terminal 6 and ensure that Hanjin will continue calling," said the terminal operation in a statement. "We are hopeful that the ILWU will also cooperate and take steps to improve the productivity of its members and return it to where it was prior to June of 2012, when the labor dispute over the refrigerated containers arose." For more of The Oregonian story: oregonlive.com Port Metro Vancouver union truckers reject mediated deal and strikeDockworkers of the Unifor-Vancouver Container Truckers' Association union are picketing Port Metro Vancouver after voting down a tentative deal brokered by a government mediator Vince Ready. Unifor spokesman Ian Boyko said union members began striking at 7 a.m. Monday. About 300 Unifor members voted unanimously in favor of a strike on March 1 due to chronically long wait times at the port. The union had put off plans for a strike after meeting with Ready on Thursday, when he arranged a tentative agreement between the truck drivers and the port. But those plans evaporated on Saturday when members voted against the agreement. "We've warned the government for years how bad the conditions are," said Gavin McGarrigle, Unifor's B.C. area director. He added that although they welcomed Ready's help, his members needed something more immediate to improve their economic position. Ready has been charged to report back to Federal Transportation Minister Lisa Raitt by May 30, but McGarrigle said that's too long a span to await a decision and the union wants Ready to be brought in to mediate with all parties present, noting there is no overarching body that speaks for all truckers at the port. "There's like 180 different employers, there's different unions, non-unions, fake unions and so it's crazy and there's no stability," said McGarrigle. Over 1,000 of non-unionized truckers staged a work stoppage on Feb. 26 to protest long waiting times at Metro Vancouver's four terminals, and low trucking rates. Unifor then announced it would go on strike unless an arbitrator was appointed. "We agree that truckers should be paid a fair wage, but bargaining relating to employment and contract relationships can only be done with the employer or the parties to the contract," said Robin Silvester, president and CEO of the port. "Port Metro Vancouver is not the employer and is not party to the contract relationships." For more of the Vancouver Sun story: vancouversun.com Shipping alliances await federal approval from former Long Beach commissionerExecutives at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are awaiting U.S. regulatory decisions regarding major container carrier alliances that could lower port profits and reduce cargo volume at the country's busiest port complex. U.S. Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Mario Cordero, a former Long Beach harbor commissioner who finished his eight-year term in 2011, will have a role in shaping international carrier alliance decisions in coming months. The concern is that the proposed alliances by three-quarters of the world's container shipping lines may shift business to other ports as the partners clamber for efficient container movement, using New Panamax vessels that carry up to 18,000 TEUs. In an interview last week at the Trans-Pacific Maritime Conference at the Long Beach Convention Center, Cordero wouldn't comment on whether his agency would approve specific alliances. "If we allow these alliances, there may be some winners, and some may not be able to maximize their businesses," said Cordero, who declined to give a timeline. A panel of ocean carrier executives at the conference, including Michael White, president of Maersk in North America, said they were confident some of the shipping alliances would be approved this summer. "It brings better service than what three carriers could provide," White said. "We are still planning for implementation by the middle of this year." The Port of Long Beach has invested heavily in accommodating the mega ships, pouring more than $4 billion of funding into bridge and dock projects – more than any other port in the U.S. The prospective mega container line alliances include the P3, which features Maersk Line, CMA CGM and MSC; the G6, which includes APL, Hapag-Lloyd AG, Hyundai Merchant Marine, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, NYK Line and OOCL; and the CKYHE alliance, formed by COSCO, "K" Line America Inc., Yangming, Hanjin and Evergreen Line. Cordero said the shipping alliances shouldn't be viewed in the context of whether they are good or bad. Instead, he said, "They should be looked at whether they have efficient and reliable transportation systems, and won't result in significant cost increases or a decrease in services." For more of the OC Register story: ocregister.com Jaxport to get $30M in state transportation fundingFlorida Gov. Rick Scott announced Monday that Jaxport will receive $30 million in state funding. Scott pledged $2.6 million to better the Blount Island facility and another $20 million from the Florida Department of Transportation to help construct a new intermodal rail transportation facility. The federal government will provide $10 million for the project. The facility will create 340 jobs during the construction phase of the project and 780 jobs once it has been completed at the end of 2015. For more of the First Coast News story: firstcoastnews.com U.S. sends Navy ship and aircraft to search for signs of missing jetThe U.S. Navy is joining in the global search for a Malaysia Airlines jet that dropped off the radar of Subang, Indonesia, traffic controllers early Saturday morning while over the South China Sea, according to the U.S. Seventh Fleet public affairs office. A Boeing 777-200 aircraft left Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a.m. Saturday local time and was scheduled to land in Beijing at 6:30 a.m. The flight carried 227 passengers from 14 countries, mainly China, and 12 crewmembers. According to the Malaysia Airlines website, three Americans, including one infant, were also on board. The USS Pinckney, an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer based in San Diego, was dispatched Saturday to the southern coast of Vietnam to join teams from Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam in search and rescue efforts already underway, according to the Malaysia Airlines website. A P-3C Orion aircraft was also deployed from Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, to apply long-range search, radar and communications capabilities to the efforts.
Thursday, March 13, 2014 Top StoryFeds approve info sharing between Seattle and Tacoma ports
The two Washington state ports will be free to start discussions about terminal operations, container facility planning and management, and creating operational efficiencies, according to FMC Commissioner William Doyle. The commission is charged with overseeing port and terminal business practices to make sure that collaborative activities don't lead to substantive hikes in prices or decreased competition. Earlier this year, the two ports announced they would apply for commission approval to exchange information because they were worried about their region's weakened shipping sector in light of competition from ports in Canada and on the East Coast. Although Tacoma's container traffic has increased the past two years after luring the the Grand Alliance shipping consortium away from Seattle, the Port of Seattle noted that the competition between the two ports hasn't increased the overall volume of goods handled through the Puget Sound. Puget Sound ports face a disadvantage compared to Canadian ports that ship containers by rail to the Midwest because containers that arrive in Canadian ports don't pay the U.S. Harbor Maintenance Tax, which averages about $100 a container. Seattle and Tacoma port officials and politicians want the U.S. to impose a similar tax on foreign containers brought into the U.S. by rail or by truck to even the competition. For more of the News Tribune story: thenewstribune.com Port Metro Vancouver trucker strike starts to affect customersHeading into its second week, the trucker walk out and strike at Port Metro Vancouver is starting to impact the business operations of its customers. Over 1,000 non-union truck drivers stopped serving the port on Feb. 26, and on Monday approximately 300 union drivers represented by Unifor joined them in a strike action, to protest lengthy waiting times at terminals and undercutting of rates. One company, distiller Odd Society Spirits, is awaiting brewing equipment that is stuck behind the gate due to the Port Metro Vancouver truck drivers dispute. While waiting for delivery, the company is being charged storage fees — $1,700 as of Tuesday, with fees at $350 per day — as long as the container sits on the dock. "We find it interesting," said Miriam Karp, Odd Society's general manager. "We're caught in this crossfire" between the truck drivers and their employers, but "the people with goods there feel the effects of it immediately." Greg Wilson, director of government relations for the Retail Council of Canada's Western Canada office, said the dispute between trucking companies and their drivers is in under the auspices of provincial Jobs Tourism and Skills Training Minister Shirley Bond, who is also the minister responsible for labor. So he and other retail members met with her representatives last week and on Tuesday they met with federal officials at Transport Canada. "We're urging the governments to get the parties to the table and talk," Wilson added. Trucking operations at Port Metro Vancouver are down to about 10 to 20 percent of typical levels, according to Peter Xotta, vice-president of planning and operations at the port. He said some long-haul trucks are still making deliveries along with the few trucking companies that are not affiliated with the striking union or non-union United Truckers Association. For more of the Vancouver Sun story: vancouversun.com BNSF leads effort to add cars to resolve rail congestionBNSF Railway is leading an effort by U.S. railroads to ease a cargo bottleneck caused by bad weather and surging crude shipments, adding hundreds of locomotives to the supply chain. BNSF increased engines by 250 over the past two months and will add another 125 within next two months, the company said. Union Pacific has dispatched up to 250 stored locomotives in 2014 and Norfolk Southern has deployed more than 100 from storage to help increase train speeds that have gone down by about 9 percent in recent months. "For now, we and other railroads are essentially flooding the network with power and that's one of the things that you do to get back up on your feet," said James Squires, president of Norfolk Southern, which operates in the eastern U.S. Petroleum and related train cargo spiked 31 percent last year to an average of 13,623 cars-per-week, as railroads are utilized to transport crude due to a shale gas-drilling boom in North America, according to the Association of American Railroads. The crude cargo continues to increase in 2014 during severe winter weather that has backlogged trains. The rail jam has been worsened by a record grain crop, which caused Canada's transport minister to order the country's two biggest rail companies to ship a minimum of 500,000 metric tons of grain each week in order to clear an epic crop backlog. U.S. railroads hauled 13 percent more grain carloads in the first nine weeks of the year. Squires said it could take a couple months for railroads to fix the traffic jam and return to normal speeds since the backup in the Midwest, especially around Chicago, is causing an imbalance in the system that impacts eastern rail cargo. For more of the Business Week story: businessweek.com Great Lakes shipping season poised to beginThe start of the 2014 Great Lakes shipping is about to start, with the Soo Locks set to open on March 25. The Soo Locks enable ships to travel between Lake Superior and the lower Great Lakes. The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Alder has been making preliminary cuts through the ice to help get the harbor area ready, but bigger icebreakers will be needed to deal with the large amounts of ice covering Lake Superior. If the ice remains as widespread as it is now, ship movement may involve convoys of vessels following behind an ice breaker that cuts a trail across the lake, according to Adele Yorde with the Seaway Port Authority. Yorde says once the ice is gone, lake levels should rise, allowing ships to carry a few extra tons in each load. For more of the Wisconsin Radio Network story: wrn.com Cargo ship rescues 3 after sailboat sinksA cargo ship rescued three people who abandoned their sinking sailboat about 35 miles south of Fort Macon on Tuesday. The Coast Guard received a distress call around noon from the Reel Safe sailboat saying they were taking on water and an urgent message was broadcast to mariners. The Islandia, a 485-foot cargo ship, arrived about an hour later to make the rescue. The Coast Guard helicopter arrived 15 minutes later and airlifted the three aboard, taking them to Fort Macon. For more of the WITN.com story: witn.com Submit Your Press |
Photo Credit: RIC ERNST - VANCOUVER SUN 
Hanjin Shipping told its customers in a memo Monday it has decided to keep calling Port of Portland, noting it would regularly review the port's "cost increases and inefficiencies."
The Federal Maritime Commission has sanctioned a request from the ports of Tacoma and Seattle to begin information exchanges aimed at boosting container traffic in the Puget Sound region.