Year: <span>2024</span>

Congress is moving closer to approving legislation funding ports and authorizing navigational projects at the ports of Baltimore and Oakland after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved its version Monday.

The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which the House approved by a 359 to 13 vote, authorizes approximately $4.8 billion in projects, including the widening and deepening of the Baltimore harbor and the widening of Oakland’s turning basin.

The Senate’s Environmental and Public Works Committee approved its own version of the bill on May 22; the legislation awaits a final vote by the entire chamber. If the Senate bill passes, leaders from both chambers will conference to create a final bill to send to President Joe Biden to sign into law.

Most projects set for authorization through WRDA are focused on storm and flood mitigation, although the bill also includes projects focused on inland waterways.

If the bill is approved, the US Army of Corp of Engineers will have the go-ahead to widen Baltimore’s Seagirt Loop Channel by an average of 760 feet and deepen the West Seagirt Branch Channel to its authorized 50-foot depth at an estimated cost of $63.9 million. The Oakland project to widen the harbor’s turning basin and deepen the harbor to the authorized 50 feet has an estimated cost of nearly $609 million.

Both projects aim to make it safer for vessels to navigate in the harbors and reduce ship idling, cutting down emissions.

Congress takes up water resources legislation every two years and has done so since 2014.

Source:

JOC. (2024, July 23). House approves Bill Authorizing Harbor Projects in Baltimore, Oakland. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/house-approves-bill-authorizing-harbor-projects-baltimore-oakland_20240723.html

The South Carolina Ports Authority (SC Ports) has eliminated the backlog of container ships that numbered between 15 and 20 just a few weeks ago, but says it is likely some inbound vessels will have to sit at anchor over the next few months because Charleston’s Wando Welch Terminal will be operating with two berths instead of three through November owing to construction work.

The port was able to clear all the recently anchored vessels, helped by a temporary reopening of all Wando Welch’s berths last week amid a 10-day pause in the project work.

Construction work will resume July 15, again taking down a berth at Wando, but a port spokesperson said any delays will be minimal until August due to the nature of the work. Next month, customers should expect 48-hour delays getting into the port; those delays could extend into September and October depending on import volumes and progress made on the full opening of the Hugh K. Leatherman marine terminal.

“Our SC Ports team and maritime partners are working together to ensure fluidity for our customers amid this critical infrastructure project,” SC Ports CEO Barbara Melvin said in a statement to the Journal of Commerce.

The project work involves the construction of something called a toe wall, a structure that is necessary to retain the inner harbor depth at 54 feet to accommodate ultra-large container vessels. The work includes installing steel sheets along the wharf that act as a barrier to prevent sediment and soil from accumulating in the harbor and reducing the channel depth.

SC Ports also said it is in close communication with ocean carriers and customers about the progress of the toe wall work to ensure there is no “ping-pong” effect in which ocean carriers drop Charleston cargo into Savannah to avoid any potential delays.

During the pandemic, ocean carriers skipped Savannah to avoid delays and dropped Savannah-bound cargo in Charleston. The trucking community could not handle the longer drays and the result was that the delays shifted from Savannah to Charleston. SC Ports CEO Barbara Melvin has previously said she does not believe such a “ping-pong” effect will happen again because terminal operations are fluid in Charleston.

Leatherman, meanwhile, will reopen before the end of the year, according to port officials, but an official date has not been announced. If it happens before the work at Wando Welch is completed, it would put Charleston back at three operating berths again capable of handling ultra-large container vessels.

Source:

Ashe, A. (2024, July 9). Charleston clears vessel backlog, but expects some delays through November. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/charleston-clears-vessel-backlog-expects-some-delays-through-november_20240709.html

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

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:

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

It will take the South Carolina Ports Authority a week or more to restore normal cargo flow through its network following the software malfunction that forced the closure of truck gates at Charleston’s marine terminals and SC Ports’ two inland ports for most of two days, trucking companies that work the market said Tuesday.

SC Ports, in a statement late Tuesday afternoon, said cargo pickups and drop-offs had resumed at all marine terminals and Inland Port Greer. The statement did not mention Inland Port Dillon, but a spokesperson for the port authority said the facility remained closed.

Additionally, SC Ports said it would extend gate hours until 7 pm Tuesday at the Wando Welch and North Charleston marine terminals “to support our motor carriers and cargo owners.”

“We appreciate the support of our maritime community and the patience of partners as we work through the restart of operations,” the port authority said.

SC Ports has said the widespread software problem that surfaced on Sunday did “not appear to be a cybersecurity issue.” A spokesperson for the port said the software vendor confirmed that the root cause of the malfunction was a technical issue, not cyber related.

While operations have mostly resumed, truckers say working through the backlog of containers that weren’t moving for almost two days has only just begun.

“In general, we still anticipate backlogs for a week or two,” a source at one trucking company told the Journal of Commerce.

On an average day, about 6,000 to 8,000 truck transactions are handled at the Wando Welch and North Charleston marine terminals, according to the South Carolina Ports Authority. Wando is the primary container location in Charleston. Other operations inside the terminal returned to normal on Monday, including loading and unloading vessels and moving boxes within the yard.

Trucking companies are concerned about short-term equipment shortages due to the pileup of cargo requiring drays to customers. A second large trucking company with operations in Charleston warned that shippers might receive accessorial fees on invoices due to the congestion.

“Even after the backlogs subside, we anticipate per diem and chassis usage cost impacts and disputes created as a result,” a source at the company told the Journal of Commerce.

Aside from the landside concerns, there will also be downstream effects outside the harbor. As of Tuesday afternoon, there were 13 container ships anchored outside Charleston, meaning the port will need to devote extra resources to clear the backlog of vessels.

Winding through unexpected fees

There are several types of accessorial fees that could become an issue in Charleston in the coming weeks, but a port official said the issues can be easily resolved.

First, there is the question of how ocean carriers and the port authority will treat the free time on containers discharged from vessels on Monday. Port officials will invoice ocean carriers for excessive use of the terminal grounds and ocean carriers will add their fees for not removing the container in a timely fashion in a demurrage invoice. The port told the Journal of Commerce that it will not count Monday or Tuesday toward its demurrage invoices.

Secondly, cargo owners may ask questions about detention penalties – i.e. penalties for not returning the empty container back within a pre-determined window. If a shipper was unable to return its empty container because the terminal was not accepting boxes, would the ocean carrier waive the fee charged on Monday since truck gates were unavailable? In TCW v. Evergreen, the Federal Maritime Commission ruled that a marine terminal must be open to incentivize the flow of containers through accessorial fees. The port did not comment on this issue since it’s a question for the ocean carriers.

The port also told the Journal of Commerce that it will not charge customers for chassis usage on Monday or Tuesday, and it would add an extra day for exporters to deposit their cargo if their window began prior to Monday.

Source:

Ashe, A. (2024b, May 21). SC ports resumes most operations, but recovery just beginning. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/sc-ports-resumes-most-operations-recovery-just-beginning_20240521.html

No cargo pickups or drop-offs were occurring throughout the South Carolina Ports Authority’s (SC Ports’) network Tuesday morning as SC Ports faced a second day dealing with a software issue that has disrupted its operations.

“SC Ports has made further progress on our gate issue, but it is not entirely resolved,” the port authority said in an advisory posted on its website at 10 am local time Tuesday. “We understand the impact that this issue is having on our partners in the industry.”

SC Ports planned to resume full operations at its marine terminals and inland ports at 5 am Tuesday after it was forced to close all terminal gates to truckers on Monday in Charleston and at inland ports Dillon and Greer because of the software malfunction. But with the issue not entirely resolved, the 5 am restart time was scuttled.

“SC Ports is working diligently to resume all operations as quickly as possible following a vendor software issue that impacted a server,” it said. “Work is progressing, and many systems have been restored.”

The port authority said Monday the issue did “not appear to be a cybersecurity issue.”

Few details are known about the extent of the software issue and whether it impacts only the truck gates or all operations inside the terminals such as ship-to-shore cranes, yard hostler vehicles and container stacks.

A spokesperson for SC Ports, in response to questions from the Journal of Commerce on Monday, said: “For security reasons, we are not going to detail our systems.”

A source with knowledge of the problem, however, called the software issue “temporary,” and added that “other operations are ongoing.”

“We were able to continue working vessels over the weekend and today and will continue to do so as able,” the source said.

Rail ramps affected

The closure affects the 6,000 to 8,000 truck transactions per day that the port authority handles, including the 500 to 650 containers outgated on trucks that are taken to terminals run by CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway (NS). If the situation is not cleared up shortly, CSX and NS will have to develop a plan to prevent its terminals from being overrun with exports.

The closures of Inland Port Dillon and Inland Port Greer might have a cascade effect on Memphis business if SC Ports doesn’t reopen on Tuesday morning. On an average day, about 100 ocean containers travel between Charleston and Memphis in either direction.

SC Ports was also beginning to see a backlog of vessels, with eight container ships docked outside Charleston as of Monday afternoon.

Source:

Ashe, A. (2024, May 21). Gates remain closed at Charleston, inland ports amid ongoing software issue. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/gates-remain-closed-charleston-inland-ports-amid-ongoing-software-issue_20240521.html