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SC Ports strikes deal with ILA to fully open Leatherman marine terminal

The Port of Charleston’s Hugh K. Leatherman marine terminal is ramping up operations after the South Carolina Ports Authority (SC Ports) and the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) reached a settlement in a long-running dispute that has kept the terminal largely offline since its opening in 2021.

The agreement, which follows the ILA’s de-facto victory in a legal case that almost reached the US Supreme Court, gives Leatherman’s crane operators “a choice to remain state employees or become an ILA member,” SC Ports said in a statement. State employees at its other container terminals can also elect to become ILA members, or they can remain an employee of SC Ports.

The deal also effectively increases Charleston’s container handling capacity by a third at a time when the port is working to clear a backlog of five ships waiting to unload.

SC Ports said in the statement its board of directors at a meeting Tuesday approved a “framework for the transition and change in labor staffing” at the Leatherman terminal that will allow ocean carriers in the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) to call the Leatherman terminal without the threat of violating their master contract with the ILA. SC Ports said the deal creates “long-term stability and competitiveness” for Charleston.

“It is now a new day, and we must cooperatively adapt to the reality of the new labor staffing allocation,” SC Ports Chief Executive Barbara Melvin told the board of a directors, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained Wednesday. “And that means working collaboratively with the ILA in a way to get Hugh K. Leatherman Terminal reopened as quickly as possible.”

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024b, June 28). Near-normal water levels allowing more ship transits through Panama Canal. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/near-normal-water-levels-allowing-more-ship-transits-through-panama-canal_20240628.html

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Charleston pausing berth project to ease vessel backlog

The South Carolina Ports Authority (SC Ports) will take a two-week pause on a construction project which has shut down one of three berths at the Wando Welch Terminal, using the break to eliminate the queue of about a dozen vessels anchored outside Charleston.

While the exact date of when the berth project will be paused hasn’t been determined, it will occur sometime shortly after the July 4 holiday and allow the port to leave all three berths open, according to Barbara Melvin, CEO of SC Ports.

The Port of Charleston closed one of three berths in the Wando Welch Terminal when construction began in March, but it would have likely gone unnoticed had there not been a software malfunction that shut the port down for two days in May.

Melvin said the infrastructure project impacted the number of vessels anchored, but the closure exacerbated the problem. While there were several anchored vessels in early May, the total ballooned to nearly 20 after the software malfunction.

As of Thursday morning, the vessel backlog was back down to 10, and the port authority plans to get that number into the single digits before the end of the month.

“We had built into our contract a 10-business day pause, and we felt like, knowing July 4th was coming up, that the pause was necessary to allow us to clear out this ship queue,” Barbara Melvin, CEO of SC Ports, told the Journal of Commerce. “I won’t hide from it, the technical issues really did add to this situation. The pause will give us that opportunity to catch up and reset without that technical issue exacerbating the problem anymore.”

Even after the pause is ended, vessels might have to wait between two to three days for a berth, she said.

Necessary work

The construction project to fortify the toe wall is necessary to allow the newest and largest container ships to safely dock in Charleston. The toe wall helps to withstand the forces of water currents and vessel movements, keeping the inner harbor dredged to 54 feet.

Maintaining the depth of an inner harbor requires recurring maintenance, no matter the port, to counter the effects of erosion and the accumulation of sediment, which otherwise would reduce the depth over time.

Since May, the port has taken several measures to reduce the supply chain impact of the anchored vessels. Ocean carriers are utilizing slots offered at 1:00 a.m. to load and unload vessels rather than the mid-morning, early afternoon or evening slots. SC Ports provides a virtual platform to inform ocean carriers the estimated berth time for their vessels, enabling them to save fuel, time and money.

Some ships have been diverted to the North Charleston terminal, but ultra-large container vessels cannot call there due to the current vertical clearance of the Don Holt Bridge.

Source:

Charleston pausing berth project to ease vessel backlog | Journal of Commerce. (2024, June 20). https://www.joc.com/article/charleston-pausing-berth-project-ease-vessel-backlog_20240620.html

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Carriers omit Singapore calls amid growing delays as Asia port congestion spreads

Ocean carriers are facing growing wait times for berths at Singapore and omitting the port on intra-Asia and Asia-Africa services amid a deepening logjam at Southeast Asia’s leading container gateway caused by ongoing Red Sea vessel diversions.

Carriers and forwarders said the average berthing delay is three to five days, but HMM and Ocean Network Express (ONE) said they are experiencing more than that.

Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) said the situation is the culmination of months of disruption as carriers curtail or blank services, discharging cargo in Singapore and other ports because vessel diversions around southern Africa mean they no longer call at Middle East or Red Sea ports.

As a result, Singapore has seen container volumes surge 8.8% to 13.4 million TEUs in the first four months of 2024 compared with last year, MPA said in a statement Thursday.

The agency said vessels are having to wait longer to berth for several reasons, including an increase in vessels arriving off-schedule, the bunching of vessel arrivals, and terminal congestion and longer dwell times as carriers discharge more containers as they forgo subsequent voyages to catch up on sailing schedules.

Terminal operator PSA Singapore is reactivating closed berths and container yards at its Keppel terminal to increase cargo handling capacity.

“The waiting time for ONE vessels has increased to an average of four days up to a maximum of eight and a half days,” an ONE spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce.

The situation is being exacerbated by high container yard utilization, so productivity is dropping and dwell times are increasing, the ONE spokesperson added.

HMM said it was facing average delays of more than four days. Despite the congestion, HMM said it continues to use Singapore as its main transshipment hub, but the carrier warned “if congestion at Singapore port keeps getting worse, we will consider rolling cargo or skipping Singapore to improve our services.”

Skipping Singapore calls

Carriers, including ONE and OOCL, are already skipping Singapore on regional services.

“Several vessels, especially those operating intra-Asia and West African services, are omitting Singapore and all Singapore [remain-on-board] cargo is being discharged at Port Klang [Malaysia],” the ONE spokesperson said.

But the extra volumes at Port Klang, which comprises the Westport and Northport terminals, is worsening congestion there, with Hapag-Lloyd reporting berth waiting times of 36 to 45 hours due to high yard utilization and vessel bunching.

Pointing out the impact of delays on intra-Asia and regional services, one senior executive at an intra-Asia carrier said a three-day delay at Singapore was the equivalent of a transit from Hong Kong to Singapore that included a call at Shenzhen’s western Shekou and Chiwan terminals.

“Intra-Asia carriers operate on tight fixed schedules,” the source said. “If there’s a three- to five-day delay at Singapore, intra-Asia carriers have no choice but to omit port calls, or discharge and roll cargo just to maintain some semblance of a schedule.”

Carriers said they are in close discussions with PSA over vessel arrivals to try to minimize delays at Singapore and the negative impact on vessel schedules. “[But] current berth capacity is insufficient to cater for our overall berth requirements, so delays continue to be expected,” the ONE spokesperson said.

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Wallis, K. (2024, May 31). Carriers omit Singapore calls amid growing delays as Asia port congestion spreads. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/carriers-omit-singapore-calls-amid-growing-delays-asia-port-congestion-spreads_20240531.html

 

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Vessel congestion building outside Charleston, Savannah

Congestion is building outside the southeast US ports of Charleston and Savannah, with more than 20 vessels combined awaiting a berth due to an ongoing infrastructure project at Charleston as well as the lingering effects from the software malfunction the port experienced almost two weeks ago.

The Port of Charleston and South Carolina inland ports in Dillon and Greer were closed for nearly two days May 20-21 because of the software problem.

“The backlog we’re experiencing is in part from our temporary operational impacts from last week, but also due to ongoing work with the toe wall project at Wando Welch Terminal — a critical infrastructure project for our operations,” a spokesperson for the South Carolina Ports Authority told the Journal of Commerce Friday.

The spokesperson said the toe wall structure maintains a stable slope beneath the wharf and provides an edge for berth deepening, improvements that will allow the berths to maintain a depth of 54 feet.

The toe wall project will keep one of the three berths at Wando Welch out of commission until the fall, meaning the terminal will only be able to handle two vessels at a time until the work is completed. That could result in anchored vessels outside Charleston until then.

“We are working diligently to bring the Leatherman Terminal back online, which will provide additional capacity,” the spokesperson said. “We are offering a virtual vessel queue time in which we communicate with ocean carriers about our estimated berthing time and their ETA. This helps them avoid rushing to wait, enabling them to save fuel, time, and money.”

The Leatherman Terminal has been underutilized since it opened in 2021 after the International Longshoremen’s Association sued ocean carriers calling the terminal because non-union labor operated its cranes and other lift equipment. The US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal in February of a lower court decision upholding the union’s right to sue.

Meanwhile, some ocean carriers have decided to switch their rotations to stop in Savannah before Charleston, according to a source who asked not to be identified, causing congestion to build there, too. It’s essentially the reverse of what happened in 2022 when berth construction in Savannah caused vessels to anchor outside that harbor and resulted in ocean carriers switching some rotations to stop in Charleston first.

There have been no significant complaints about the congestion at either port from importers restocking on inventory, but it’s possible the delays will cause some consternation for exporters who will have to pay attention to the earliest receiving dates to bring cargo into the terminals.

Source:

Ashe, A. (2024, May 31). Vessel congestion building outside Charleston, Savannah. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/vessel-congestion-building-outside-charleston-savannah_20240531.html