Cargo Business Newswire

Friday, July 24, 2015

Container ship calls Portland port for first time in 3 months

Terminal 6 at the Port of Portland is about to welcome its first ship since early April. The container terminal has a sole shipping line still calling, and a visiting vessel is so infrequent it triggered a statement from terminal operator ICTSI Oregon.

ICTSI Oregon chief executive Elvis Ganda announced that a ship from Westwood Shipping would stop Tuesday in Portland. Westwood has a contract with ICTSI through the end of the year. It made up less than 1 percent of the container terminal's business before major shipping lines Hanjin and Hapag Lloyd stopped service to Portland earlier this year.

Westwood is Portland's remaining connection to Asia. Hanjin Shipping made stops throughout Asia,

but pulled out of Portland after months of slow work during contract negotiations between West Coast port operators and the ILWU, as well as years of labor conflict at Terminal 6.

Hapag-Lloyd, which shipped goods between Oregon and Europe, stopped service to Portland shortly thereafter.

Ganda said that he and Port of Portland officials are trying to win back business. ICTSI Oregon still has 20 years on its contract running Terminal 6 for the Port of Portland.

For more of the Oregon Live story: www.oregonlive.com