Lithium-ion battery fire disrupts terminal operations at Port of Los Angeles
A truck carrying lithium-ion batteries overturned and caught fire Thursday near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
A truck carrying lithium-ion batteries overturned and caught fire Thursday near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
The Port of Los Angeles handled 960,597 twenty-foot equivalent units in August, a 16% increase over the previous year and the busiest month ever outside the pandemic. Eight months into […]
The International Longshoremen’s Association has adopted a resolute stance in negotiations with East Coast port employers from Maine to Houston. There’s speculation that sympathy work stoppages could spread to West Coast container gateways.
The Port of Los Angeles edged out Laredo, Texas, as the No. 1 U.S. trade gateway in July, while Mexico was the top U.S. trade partner for the month.
In the latest move to strengthen the largest U.S. container gateway, a key Port of Los Angeles terminal will receive $52 million to upgrade its on-dock rail capacity.
The Port of Los Angeles has named Erica M. Calhoun deputy executive director overseeing the city of Los Angeles Harbor Department’s Administrative Bureau.
As eastbound import traffic continues to grow, Union Pacific announced surcharges for its premium EMP and UMAX services out of the Southern California gateway.
Vessel delays and labor concerns had importers rushing to get holiday merchandise into the Port of Los Angeles before the traditional peak season in the fall.
A battery-charging network strategy aimed at phasing out diesel-burning trucks kicks off with 12,000 miles of interstate freight corridors.
Drayage carriers at the Port of Long Beach may be adding more internal combustion engine vehicles than zero-emission vehicles to prepare for California’s Advanced Clean Fleets rule. The Port of LA’s use of ZEVs is also low.
Following 15 months of challenges, U.S. ports are once again experiencing substantial growth in inbound containers.
Port director Gene Seroka cited replenishing inventory and consumer spending as drivers of growth.
Lower inventories in the U.S. are pulling freight into the country.
Shippers are reverting to pre-pandemic shipping patterns, which may exacerbate the next freight market shift.
Now that port labor unrest is over, West Coast container terminals are starting to claw back some of their lost volumes.
“The table is set to scale up as demand increases,” said Port of LA Executive Director Gene Seroka.
“Patience is wearing thin. Neither side imagined it would take this long,” says the head of the Port of LA on dockworker contract talks.
This year’s peak season could see West Coast labor disruptions coincide with Panama Canal water levels impeding cargo flows to the East Coast.
Dockworkers who keep West Coast cargo flowing are highly paid. Their bid for even higher pay is starting to affect the cargo flow.
The dockworkers’ union and terminal employers are still sparring over wages and benefits more than a year after contract talks began.
Trans-Pacific spot rates have pared earlier gains and remain at loss-making levels. Demand has yet to rebound.
America’s imports are not signaling a recession, at least not yet. Inbound volumes are rising from the bottom.
“Simply put, there’s no bigger priority right now than this contract agreement,” says Gene Seroka of the Port of Los Angeles.
Although import volumes show signs of a nascent recovery, the inventory overhang remains daunting.
After labor unrest closed Los Angeles and Long Beach on Friday, ports on the East and Gulf coasts look even more attractive.
U.S. importers have forsaken their traditional gateway in Southern California. Many may be gone for good.
“We knew the port terminals, we understood their operations, but mostly we understood their systems and data. We thought we could be the bridge that wasn’t created before that could speak both parties’ languages and get containers in and out,” said BlueCargo co-founder and CEO Alexandra Griffon.
Los Angeles continues to face a double whammy of sinking demand and fears over the port labor contract that expired in July.
The Georgia Ports Authority said a 16% drop in imports year over year “was fueled in part by reduced orders in retail and manufacturing.”
What can be done to alleviate emissions and decarbonize transportation in the ports?
American imports remain a tale of two coasts, with continued strength in container volumes headed to Atlantic ports.
Remaining queues of waiting ships are dwindling, another sign that supply chain pressure is winding down.
Container shipping lines are gradually getting their services back on schedule, but they still have a long way to go.
Containerized imports to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have now fallen well below pre-COVID levels.
Shippers and carriers are increasing the pressure on ports and other supply chain participants to roll out “green corridors” using digital technology.
Southern California’s container-ship logjam ends as congestion eases at East and Gulf Coast ports.
The head of Los Angeles’ port is on a worldwide sales blitz, trying to convince shippers and carriers to come back.
Imports remain 7% higher than pre-pandemic levels, with volumes steadying last month after September’s plunge.
Einride will be building electric vehicle charging stations to support Maersk’s deployment of its E-truck, starting with a facility near the Port of Los Angeles.
Southern California ports are being hit by double-digit import drops as the COVID-19 cargo boom winds down.
Declining imports have led to fewer container ships waiting off ports, injecting more capacity into the market, a negative for spot rates.
East and Gulf coast ports handled more volume than ever before in August, pulling far ahead of West Coast rivals.
Executive Director Mario Cordero says the Port of Long Beach is “making great strides in reducing the number of ships queuing to enter the San Pedro Bay ports complex and quickly moving imports and empty containers out of the terminals.”
U.S. containerized imports are still near record highs, but not in Los Angeles, where they’ve fallen sharply.
The Georgia Ports Authority says the Navis system “eliminates data silos, improves velocity across our terminals and enables us to more easily integrate with our customers to provide the data and insights they need.”
California’s container-ship traffic jam is almost gone, replaced by stubbornly high backlogs off the East and Gulf coasts.
Importers have been shifting to the East Coast since 2021, but the full realization of this has peaked over the summer. The shifting import pattern has strong downstream effects for surface transportation providers.
The Mojave Inland Port could reduce congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Spot rates on most global shipping routes continue to fall. The trans-Atlantic market is the exception: It’s holding firm near its high.
U.S. imports accelerated in July, with inbound cargo from China reaching a year-to-date high, according to Descartes.
With East Coast ship queues high, port executive Gene Seroka says: “For cargo owners looking to rechart their course, come to Los Angeles.”
The drop in ships waiting off Southern California is deceiving. The number of ships off all three coasts is back to all-time highs.
Peak season imports are expected to remain strong but rail delays require ‘immediate’ attention, says Port of LA’s Gene Seroka.
Southern California ports can’t evacuate import containers fast enough. The backlog has yet again reached critical levels.
There were 125 container ships waiting offshore on Friday, including 36 off Savannah, 24 off Southern California and 20 each off Houston and New York.
The number of import containers sitting at LA/LB terminals for nine days or more has more than doubled since February.
America’s peak cargo importing season will start early this year, by the end of this month, says the Port of Los Angeles boss.
President Biden made his case for getting ocean carrier reform on the books by accusing ocean carriers of jacking up prices for consumers.
May was one of the busiest months in history for the container ports of Long Beach and Charleston.
The number of container ships waiting off Los Angeles/Long Beach recently sank to 25, the lowest tally since July 2021.
Supply chain bottlenecks on the West Coast last year were evident in global port ranking data.
Safety stats show resilience despite aging ships, cut corners on maintenance and rising pressure on seafarers.
According to maritime expert John McCown, the U.S. ports with the strongest April performance were Charleston, South Carolina; Houston; and New York/New Jersey.
China’s zero-COVID policy is a prescription for more inflation and supply chain “illness.”
‘Right now, we don’t see a huge buildup of volumes because of the closedown in Shanghai,’ reports Maersk CEO Soren Skou.
CEO Brad Wright explains how Chunker’s short-term container storage model reduces risk for shippers.
America’s largest container port, Los Angeles, just posted the best March and best first quarter in its history.
The debate heats up on whether this is the beginning of the end of container shipping’s bull run.
Dirty trucks will pay $10 per TEU in and out of the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports to raise money for zero-emission trucks and infrastructure.
A container fire at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has led to a Coast Guard investigation of four companies for possible shipping violations.
Federal regulators will begin to assess how container lines are serving U.S. exporters.
California ports make progress on bottlenecks, but Chinese lockdowns could spur “hockey stick” import rise.
DOT is leading a freight data exchange pilot project that it envisions as a long-term effort to speed cargo flow and cut costs for consumers.
COVID lockdowns haven’t closed Chinese ports yet. If they do, U.S. importers face “shockwave” of higher rates and delays.
Liner company Zim expects to rake in a billion dollars more this year than in record-setting 2021.
There are now more container ships waiting off East and Gulf Coast ports than there are off Los Angeles/Long Beach.
“Efforts to successfully move aging cargo out of shipping terminals” improve the picture at California’s San Pedro Bay ports.
One-year agreement will allow for at least 20,000 boxes to be stored off-site, state says.
West Coast terminal operators could be taking advantage of supply chain disruptions by overcharging shippers for using night gates.
Dysfunction at the nation’s largest port helps explain why the U.S. is losing the trade war to China.
An internal process audit can be easier than you think, ships waiting for berths in San Pedro Bay have finally decreased, and Canada can’t quit with border issues.
The number of ships waiting off Los Angeles/Long Beach fell 23% over the past week.
In this exclusive interview with American Shipper, the port envoy to the White House Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force discusses the state of the ports, the challengers at hand and the outlook for the future.
Accusations fly as shipping lines rake in billions, but the numbers imply more carrier competition, not less.
Barring an economic downturn, U.S. demand could still be squeezing ports a year from now.
Despite the victory of saving Christmas, the congestion problems at the nation’s largest ports have not improved.
“International collaboration is essential to decarbonize global supply chains. It’s time to get started on this important work,” said Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles.
SoCal imports suffering multimonth slide, not because of falling demand, but because of supply chain bottlenecks.
Drivers are people who have needs and wants, goods from October are just now being unloaded at West Coast ports, and the FMSCA has a new deputy administrator.
No letup yet: It’s taking even longer for Asian exports to get across Pacific to American buyers.
The finger-pointing of blame and the political promises and suggestions are not improving the flow of trade.
DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg touted holiday season wins at the ports of LA and Long Beach while addressing shipping-sector prices.
Popular interest in the supply chain may have faded, but the pileup of ships waiting offshore keeps growing.
How could the consensus — that container spot rates will remain extremely high — be wrong?
Port of Los Angeles is going vessel operators to clear out empty containers or else face big fines.
There has never been a year like this for container shipping. Here are the biggest stories of 2021.
After an exceptional year for ocean shipping, the data points to more action ahead in 2022.
Carriers and shippers are turning to East Coast ports as Los Angeles/Long Beach remains mired in congestion.
Port Hueneme is an example of a niche port that is attracting more container shipments because of bottlenecks at big seaports.
Import demand remains exceptionally strong but volumes through America’s largest port are falling.