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The Port of Virginia is expanding its operating hours to handle the increased cargo volumes now bypassing the Port of Baltimore following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26.

The Virginia Port Authority (VPA) said the Virginia International Gateway (VIG) terminal and Norfolk International Terminals (NIT) will extend their gates during the week, with new hours being 3 a.m. to 6 p.m. Additionally, VIG will be open on Saturdays from 8 am to 5 pm.

VIG had not been open on any Saturdays this year after having sporadic Saturday hours from 2021 through 2023 to handle occasional spikes in import volumes. NIT will remain closed on Saturdays.

VPA did not put an end date on the expanded hours, only saying it will monitor the Baltimore cargo it handles to determine if truck drivers at some point are able to handle the Baltimore-related cargo during normal weekday hours.

The US Army Corps of Engineers last week said it is planning to reopen Baltimore’s port to vessel traffic on a limited basis by the end of April, with a full reopening hoped for by the end of May.

More than 400 Baltimore-area truck drivers have registered to temporarily operate at the Port of Virginia, according to the VPA. The Maryland drivers will deliver cargo to destinations in Maryland and Pennsylvania normally routed through Baltimore.

“The Maryland-based motor carriers that are coming here to pick up Baltimore-bound cargo have a full day of driving ahead of them and we want this group of drivers to have a safe, efficient, and quick transaction here so they can get back on the road and headed home,” a VPA spokesperson said. “Extending our operating hours is one way of taking an additional step to help out a neighbor.”

The US Department of Transportation offered some relief on April 4, granting an exemption permitting drivers to work an additional two hours of drive time beyond the federal limits if the cargo is connected to the Port of Baltimore closure. Drivers, however, would still not be allowed to exceed 14 hours on roadways.

Norfolk Southern Railway could also serve as a relief valve for diverted cargo because it runs trains to the Virginia Inland Port in Front Royal, Va. For certain destinations in western Maryland and Pennsylvania, a rail option to Front Royal would reduce the workload on a truck driver.

VPA said there is “a lot of interest in Virginia Inland Port and we expect some additional volume there,” although it’s unclear how may containers will be railed to Front Royal.

Some differences for drivers

Maryland drivers need to be aware of two key differences between the Port of Baltimore and the Port of Virginia.

There is a mandatory appointment system until 4:00 p.m. to pick up or drop off cargo at Norfolk, something Maryland drivers might not be accustomed to because no such requirement exists in Baltimore.

The Port of Virginia also has its own chassis pool, which means if a driver uses the port authority equipment, the individual will have to return the unit back to Norfolk. The driver cannot return a Port of Virginia-branded chassis to Baltimore. However, drivers are permitted to use outside chassis at the Port of Virginia, so they could bring one from Baltimore and use it in Norfolk.

Source:

Ashe, A. (2024, April 10). Norfolk expands hours to handle cargo volumes shifted from Baltimore. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/norfolk-expands-hours-handle-cargo-volumes-shifted-baltimore_20240410.html

Maersk will resume transits through the Panama Canal in May on its Ocean-Americas (OC1) service after the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) announced a slight increase in the number of permitted daily vessel transits through the drought-hit waterway.

The carrier, which announced the move in an advisory Friday, has since January been using the adjacent canal railroad to transfer boxes between terminals on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

Maersk said it had been “closely monitoring” the introduction of additional transit slots by the ACP in recent weeks before deciding to shift back to using the canal on its OC1 service. The first northbound canal transit will be by the Maersk Inverness about May 17, while the initial southbound transit will be made by the Spirit of Auckland around May 20.

The OC1 service “will return to its pre-existing rotation that was in place prior to the current two-loop setup established with the Panama Rail connection,” Maersk said. The use of the rail link “will be phased out by the end of May,” the carrier added.

Maersk’s two-loop service involved ships operating between Philadelphia, Charleston and Manzanillo in Panama and Balboa (Panama), Tauranga (New Zealand) and Melbourne (Australia).

Maersk confirmed the new rotation of the single-loop OC1 service via the canal would include calls at Philadelphia, Charleston, Balboa, Melbourne, Port Chalmers (New Zealand), Tauranga, Manzanillo, Cristobal and Cartagena.

Maersk has been using the canal for its other services, a carrier spokesperson said.

Hapag-Lloyd and Ocean Network Express confirmed transits through the Panama Canal have been fully restored on their three Asia-US East Coast trans-Pacific services operated under THE Alliance network. That follows a partial shift back to canal transits at the beginning of this year after vessels were diverted via the Cape of Good Hope when drought-related vessel restrictions were at their toughest.

Vessel slots increased

The ACP as of the end of March increased the number of daily vessel slots available through the canal to 27 from 24. That followed an improvement in actual and projected water levels on the Gatun Lake, a chokepoint on the canal system, following heavy rain in the canal watershed.

Drought restrictions had been imposed in the middle of last year, leading to long vessel queues with more than 100 ships waiting to transit the waterway in August.

“ACP may also increase the number of slots offered through auction, depending on the Gatun Lake’s level projections,” the authority said in a statement.

That comes as queue waiting times for both northbound and southbound transits for non-booked vessels are down to less than a day, ACP figures showed Friday. That is a significant improvement from February, when the average wait time for ships without bookings was five days for northbound vessels and four days for southbound vessels.

Some 49 ships, including 41 that have transit bookings, were waiting to pass through the canal Friday, according to ACP data.

Source:

Wallis, K. (2024, April 5). Maersk to resume Panama Canal transits on OC1 service as vessel restrictions ease. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/maersk-resume-panama-canal-transits-oc1-service-vessel-restrictions-ease_20240405.html

The Port of Baltimore is preparing workarounds to start handling containers and other ocean freight on a limited basis within the next four weeks ahead of a planned full reopening to vessel traffic by the end of May. The expedited reopening marks a rapid recovery for Baltimore following the vessel collision and bridge collapse that closed its main shipping channel early last week.

Meanwhile, other ports along the US East Coast continue to process diverted Baltimore-bound cargo with little to no impact on their operations. Even so, ocean carriers are pushing diversion-related fees onto shippers during Baltimore’s closure.

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) said in a statement Thursday it expects to clear the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge from Baltimore’s 50-foot-deep shipping channel by the end of May, “restoring port access to normal capacity.”

It was unclear in the immediate aftermath of the March 26 collision of the 9,962-TEU Dali into the bridge how long it would take for the port to reopen. Gen. Scott Spellmon said in the statement the USACE now has “a better understanding of the immense and complex work” of removing the 4,000 tons of debris resting on top of the Dali, allowing it to be refloated.

“A fully opened federal channel remains our primary goal,” Spellmon said. “These are ambitious timelines that may still be impacted by significant adverse weather conditions or changes in the complexity of the wreckage.”

Ahead of the full reopening, the USACE said it will open a 35-foot-deep channel by the end of April that will support one-way vessel traffic into Baltimore harbor. That channel will support the restart of a container-on-barge service offered by Columbia Coastal Transport that shuttles between the Port of Virginia, which has been receiving ships diverted from Baltimore, and Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore.

The service uses two US-flagged barges of approximately 900-TEU capacity. Transit time from Norfolk to Baltimore is approximately two days.

In addition, the 35-foot channel will allow some roll-on/roll-off (ro/ro) vessels to resume calls at Baltimore. Baltimore’s Dundalk Marine Terminal and Fairfield Marine Terminal, which handle the bulk of the Baltimore’s ro/ro vessels, are also cut off to vessel traffic, forcing ro/ro vessels to divert to the TradePoint Atlantic logistics facility located outside the port’s inner harbor.

The container-on-barge service would complement inter-port rail services that are moving Baltimore-bound ocean containers diverted to the Port of New York and New Jersey back to Seagirt for local pickup. Norfolk Southern is working on a similar service that will bring ocean containers to Virginia’s Front Royal inland port, where they can be trucked into Maryland.

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024, April 5). Baltimore preps for limited port reopening by end of April. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/baltimore-preps-limited-port-reopening-end-april_20240405.html

Ocean carriers are diverting ships to other ports in the Northeast US while CSX Transportation plans on rare north-south intermodal trips between those ports to handle containers that would otherwise go through the Port of Baltimore. The moves come as shippers scramble to figure out their next best options in the immediate wake of the Baltimore port’s closure.

Vessel traffic in and out of the port remained suspended Wednesday as recovery efforts resumed for six missing construction workers, now presumed dead, who fell into the Patapsco River after the Maersk-chartered Dali crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday.

With salvage efforts for the downed bridge still to be undertaken, the Maryland Port Administration has not provided a timeline on when the port will reopen.

The length of the recovery efforts, as well as the potential impact on vessel traffic once the bridge gets rebuilt, are what’s at stake for many shippers that relied on Baltimore to move their goods and are now having to figure out their next steps.

“A shorter duration closure involves a temporary reroute to manage the disruption from a supply chain perspective,” a maritime logistics executive told the Journal of Commerce. “A longer duration disruption may involve rebuilding existing supply chains.”

For the time being, the temporary reroute is the option. Seagirt Terminal, the Port of Baltimore’s main container terminal, had planned for the arrival of 18 container ships through April 6, according to Seagirt’s vessel schedule as of Tuesday.

As of Wednesday, three Mediterranean Shipping Co. vessels that were previously bound for Baltimore – MSC Alina, MSC Altamira and MSC Paris – are expected to arrive at the Port of Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue Terminal this week, according to Packer’s vessel schedule.

PhilaPort said in a statement following Baltimore’s closure that “the maritime and supply chain community will naturally work to assist the Port of Baltimore at this time.”

New Jersey’s Port Newark Container Terminal plans to receive seven ships that were previously Baltimore-bound through the first week of April. Those include the MSC Kumsal, Maersk Makutu, Maersk Gironde, MSC Mattina and Nele Maersk, along with second calls by the Alina and Paris.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement Tuesday that “it is proactively working with our industry partners to respond as needed and ensure supply chain continuity along the East Coast.”

The Gironde, Makutu and Maersk’s CCNI Andes are also now scheduled to call the Port of Virginia’s Norfolk International Terminal in the coming weeks after previously planning to arrive at Baltimore.

The Port of Virginia said in a statement that “it is already working with ocean carriers whose vessels were due to call Baltimore and offering our port’s capability to discharge cargoes as requested.”

Other carriers that call Baltimore, including CMA CGM and Evergreen Marine, are declaring force majeure on freight, leaving it indeterminate where they plan to discharge their goods. Evergreen’s 14,000-TEU Talos remains at anchorage at Savannah and its sister ship Triton is anchored at Norfolk.

Baltimore’s Seagirt, which handled 1.1 million TEUs last year, is planning to help move some of that freight. Ports America, Seagirt’s operator, said in a statement to the Journal of Commerce that it is working with CSX Transportation, its on-dock rail provider, to move import containers from other ports to Seagirt. It said it is also working with Norfolk Southern on a similar plan at its off-dock rail yard, which handles domestic containers.

“CSX and Ports America are collaborating on the fast launch of intermodal service for cargo diverted to other ports to come through the intermodal container transfer facility at Seagirt as a solution for cargo owners wanting Baltimore access,” the statement said. “Norfolk Southern has also reached out to discuss similar solutions for importers.”

Trucking, ocean freight costs expected to increase

Jeff Leppert, vice president of Redwood Logistics, told the Journal of Commerce that shippers are asking about their trucking options as they face port diversions. He said it’s unclear how long those diversions will last, but noted they will cause delays and higher expenses as more drayage providers and transload facilities for truckload freight are tapped.

“Shippers are asking what do we do about securing capacity,” Leppert said. “We don’t have a lot of excess truck capacity laying around.”

Robert Burdette, vice president of Baltimore-based third-party logistics provider Shapiro, told the Journal of Commerce that roughly two-thirds of the ocean freight coming into Baltimore goes to warehouse and distribution centers areas around Hagerstown, Maryland, and southeastern Pennsylvania.

He said New York-New Jersey will make more sense for some of the Pennsylvania-bound freight due to the shorter length of haul. But freight coming through Norfolk will likely require transloading to dry-van because drayage is not economic at the longer distance.

“Norfolk sounds appealing from the perspective of port capacity, but it doesn’t work that well for Baltimore,” Burdette said.

Challenges for exporters

Rachel Shames, vice president at Norfolk-based forwarder CV International, told the Journal of Commerce that transloading from container to truckload at the Port of Virginia is going to be the main option for shippers looking to get to the Baltimore region.

Shames said that more truckers are reaching out about work and there’s transload capacity available, but whether it’s going to be enough to handle the diversions is unclear.

“I get the sense that we can absorb some of the extra volume down here, but it’s really hard to say what the actual volumes are going to be,” she said.

Exporters, too, are facing a similar issue of repositioning their containers or waiting out the port’s reopening. CMA CGM sent a notice to shippers Tuesday indicating it will allow laden exports to remain at the port until Baltimore harbor reopens. The carrier said that exporters can use Norfolk or New York-New Jersey as an alternative, but that repositioning the containers will be at the shipper’s expense.

Burdette said it’s much more difficult for an exporter to absorb repositioning costs because of the low value of their freight. Ports America said export containers will also be addressed through the CSX and Norfolk Southern service once plans for import containers are finalized.

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024b, March 27). Northeast ports prepare for Baltimore-bound freight as Shippers Scramble. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/northeast-ports-prepare-baltimore-bound-freight-shippers-scramble_20240327.html

The closure of the Port of Baltimore will be felt far from Chesapeake Bay but tempered by excess capacity at other ports and on US highways, analysts and industry sources say.

Problems could range from shortages of drayage and flatbed capacity on the East Coast to delays and higher costs for the delivery of goods rerouted to other ports. While it’s unknown how long Baltimore’s port will be closed, most knock-on impacts are expected to be short-lived and specific to certain markets and industrial verticals.

“It’s peak season for flatbed work out of Baltimore, and the supply of agricultural and construction equipment to the Midwest could be disrupted,” Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics, told the Journal of Commerce.

That’s one of many potential challenges shippers and trucking companies might see in the wake of the port closure after a container ship struck and collapsed the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday, Croke and other industry sources said.

The immediate issue for shippers, warehouse operators and carriers in the Baltimore area was how to keep freight moving. “The loss of the bridge has been impactful, as that’s a big hazmat route,” said John Luciani, COO of LTL Solutions for regional less-than-truckload (LTL) carrier A. Duie Pyle.

Trucks carrying hazardous materials are banned from the Baltimore harbor tunnels on I-95 and I-895 and use the I-695 beltway around Baltimore. The collapsed bridge is on the eastern half of that route, which means trucks must detour to the west.

Luciani said traffic congestion has increased since the bridge collapse but called that an “inconvenience” rather than a significant problem. “The impact is probably an additional 30 minutes” as trucks take alternate routes around Baltimore, he said.

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Cassidy, W. B. (2024, March 27). Trucking squeezed, but not crushed, by Baltimore Port Closure. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/trucking-squeezed-not-crushed-baltimore-port-closure_20240327.html

The Port of Baltimore will remain closed for the foreseeable future after a Maersk-chartered container ship lost power and crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday, collapsing the span and sending construction workers on the bridge into the Patapsco River. At least six workers remained missing, authorities said; two were rescued from the water.

With the fifth-largest container port on the US East Coast now effectively isolated from waterborne traffic, the deadly accident will, at least temporarily, reconfigure the region’s supply chain. Mediterranean Shipping Co., the world’s largest container carrier, said it expects it will be “several months” before it can resume calls to Baltimore.

Baltimore is the largest port along the East Coast port for handling roll-on, roll-off cargo such as cars, light trucks and farm equipment, processing 389,096 auto units last year.

The port’s closure could put pressure on container lines as they divert vessel calls, challenging ocean service reliability at other US East Coast ports and even generate congestion if there’s vessel bunching at those gateways.

“This is a major disaster and will create significant problems on the US East Coast for US importers and exporters,” Lars Jensen, CEO of Vespucci Maritime and a Journal of Commerce analyst, said in a LinkedIn Post. “The bridge collapse will mean that for the time being it will not be possible to get to the container terminals – or a range of the other port terminals – in Baltimore.”

President Joe Biden, speaking from the White House, promised to put the full weight of the federal government behind recovery efforts in Baltimore, including funding the entire cost of reconstructing the bridge. “I directed my team to move heaven and Earth to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible,” Biden said.

Alternative routings for vessels looking to drop off or remove cargo from the region include Wilmington, Delaware; Philadelphia and Norfolk, said S&P Global analysts, noting that the three ports ranged from 120 miles to 260 miles from Baltimore via truck.

No timeline for port reopening

The US Coast Guard said it received a report at 1:27 am Tuesday that the 948-foot container ship Dali struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement that the Dali reported losing power prior to the collision.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said a press conference that search-and-rescue efforts were still underway late Tuesday for at least six construction workers who were on the bridge at the time of its collapse. She did not offer a timeline on when the port would reopen.

“Right now, it’s about people and addressing the needs of those that were impacted, that’s the focus,” Homendy said. “I don’t think anybody at the NTSB command post is thinking about the next steps for getting things cleaned up. They are working to find out who was impacted and how do we address that, because that is and should be the priority always.”

The Maryland Port Administration said in a statement that due to bridge strike, “vessel traffic into and out of the Port of Baltimore is suspended until further notice.” It said that trucks are still being processed at the port’s main container terminal, Seagirt.

The port said in its last update that “at this time we do not know how long vessel traffic will be suspended.”

No Maersk personnel onboard vessel

The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, which flagged the 9,962-TEU ship, said the Dali had 22 seafarers on board. None were injured.

The ship is owned by Singapore-based Grace Ocean Pte. Ltd., which has a fleet 54 ships of various types, including six container ships, five of which are chartered to Maersk, according to Sea-web, a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global.

The Dali is operated by Singapore-based Synergy Maritime, Sea-web data shows. It is deployed in the 2M Alliance’s TP12/Empire service between North Asia and the US East Coast. Baltimore was the last US call before heading to the Port of Colombo in Sri Lanka, according to its last AIS track.

Maersk said in a statement to the Journal of Commerce that the Dali “is time chartered by Maersk and is carrying Maersk customers’ cargo. No Maersk crew and personnel were on board the vessel.”

The carrier added it was “horrified by what has happened in Baltimore, and our thoughts are with all of those affected.”

Synergy Maritime said in a statement that the vessel was outbound from Baltimore under control of two local pilots at the time of the accident. It said all crew members and the two pilots have been accounted for and there has been no pollution from the accident.

“The US Coast Guard and local officials have been notified, and the owners and managers are fully cooperating with federal and state government agencies under an approved plan,” Synergy said.

Trucks still working Seagirt terminal

Seagirt, which handled approximately 1.12 million TEUs last year, is also home to three other Asia services along with the TP12/Empire. Those include the Ocean Alliance’s Taiwan Strait/AWE3 service, Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s Santana service and Zim Shipping’s ZXB service.

The 2M Alliance also operates two trans-Atlantic services that call Baltimore, with other container lines operating various services from India and South America that also call the port. It is not known yet how those services may be rerouted.

Maersk said in a customer advisory that cargo on the TP12 service, its two European services, and a service from South Africa would omit Baltimore “for the foreseeable future, until it is deemed safe for passage through this area.”

According to Ports America’s vessel arrival schedule, some 18 container ships were expected to arrive at Seagirt between March 26 and April 6. Those include Evergreen Marine’s 14,000-TEU Triton and Talos, which are deployed in the Ocean Alliance’s Asia service and expected to call over the next two weeks. Another ship in 2M’s TP12 service, the 10,000-TEU Maersk Yukon, was expected to call in the next week.

MSC, Maersk’s partner in the 2M Alliance, said in a statement the Dali was carrying cargo for MSC customers. The carrier also said it expects it will take “several months” to resume calls at Baltimore.

“We are expecting substantial delays to cargo aboard the (Dali) and currently standing on the quay in Baltimore,” MSC said. “Further to the port authority’s closure of the port, we also have no choice but to omit Baltimore from all our services for the foreseeable future, until the passage to port is reopened and declared safe. We expect this to take several months and all MSC customer cargo will be rerouted and discharged at alternative ports in the meantime.”

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024, March 26). No timeline for Baltimore port reopening following bridge collapse. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/no-timeline-baltimore-port-reopening-following-bridge-collapse_20240326.html

Terminal operators at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are working to reduce a backlog of rail containers that have accumulated during two consecutive months of strong imports and are urging the railroads to send more cars to the ports to help them finish the job.

The rail container inventory at Yusen Terminals in Los Angeles is double the normal volume, but the terminal has managed the load thus far. “We’ve been backed up for four to five weeks, but there’s no real congestion yet,” said Yusen CEO Alan McCorkle.

Still, McCorkle said he anticipates strong volumes for summer and fall as much of the discretionary cargo that left West Coast ports last year during the prolonged longshore contract negotiations returns.

US imports from Asia in January and February handled in Los Angeles-Long Beach totaled 1,395,837 TEUs, an increase of 39.6% from the first two months of 2023, according to PIERS, a Journal of Commerce sister company within S&P Global.

The two railroads that serve Los Angeles-Long Beach, BNSF and Union Pacific, say they are responding to the backlog in Southern California. BNSF and Union Pacific told the Journal of Commerce they are deploying more intermodal railcars to Los Angeles-Long Beach and are adjusting their operations so the terminals can clear out the rail containers and reduce dwell times.

BNSF in February set a record for on-dock intermodal container moves in Los Angeles-Long Beach, beating its previous February volume record set in 2021, said Jon Gabriel, the railroad’s vice president for innovation, service design and network strategy.

BNSF is steadily reducing the rail container backlog, he said. “We will whittle away at it and should be completely current by the start of April,” said Gabriel.

BNSF has positioned “ready fleets” of railcars at “multiple locations” throughout the western US so it can deploy more equipment when needed at the ports and along its network, Gabriel said. “We have dedicated equipment that focuses only on the ports,” he added.

In addition to the import surge in Los Angeles-Long Beach, operating conditions in the western part of the country were hampered by wildfires in Texas and flooding that occurred during multiple rainstorms on the West Coast, Gabriel noted.

When some terminals in Los Angeles-Long Beach began to experience a surge of imports, Union Pacific “temporarily restricted westbound empty billing to help marine terminals manage higher import volumes,” a UP spokesperson said. The temporary restriction was later lifted and UP isn’t experiencing a railcar shortage this week, the spokesperson said.

Backlogs vary from terminal to terminal

The rail container backlogs vary from terminal to terminal in Los Angeles-Long Beach. SSA Marine, which operates three terminals in Long Beach, has not experienced issues with rail containers so far this year. Due to its mix of ocean carriers, SSA does not handle as many intermodal containers as some terminals, said Ed DeNike, president of SSA Containers.

Details please refer to JOC news.

Source:

Mongelluzzo, B. (2024b, March 19). BNSF, up working through rail container backlogs in Southern California. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/bnsf-working-through-rail-container-backlogs-southern-california_20240319.html