Category: <span>news</span>

Published Date : 2022-08-31

Monday’s opening of a road-rail corridor that will streamline truck haulage in Prince Rupert without increasing traffic in the local community is seen as another step in an effort to attract more export and import transloading operations that the western Canadian port hopes will significantly boost its cargo volumes.

The Fairview-Ridley Connector Corridor, with a private freight roadway and rail sidings, will reduce the drayage distance from the existing transloading facilities to the port’s marine terminals from 12.4 miles to 3.4 miles while diverting the truck trips away from the community’s streets, according to Brian Friesen, vice president of trade development and communications at the Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA).

Daily truck traffic generated by the port has grown from a few trips 15 years ago to several hundred today.

“The road and rail corridor directly links Fairview Terminal, both current and future capacity, with future import and export logistics sites … that will offer new opportunities for Canadian businesses to reach global markets through containerized trade,” the PRPA said in a statement.

Prince Rupert has three transloading facilities where forest and agricultural products and plastic pellets are received in bulk cars on the Canadian National Railway and then transloaded into marine containers for export. Exports have increased from virtually none when the port opened in 2007 to more than 30 percent of its total laden container volume today, Friesen said.

Construction is scheduled to begin next year on a large export transloading facility to serve multiple tenants. Exports are expected to “explode” within the next few years to account for half of Prince Rupert’s total container volume, Friesen said.

Port to develop new import transloading facility

The port in the next few years also plans to develop an import transloading facility where laden import marine containers will be transloaded into 53-foot domestic containers that CN will carry to destinations in eastern Canada and the US. The empty marine containers will then be filled with export commodities at the export transload facilities.

“It will all happen behind the port fence,” Friesen said. “There will be no impact on the community.”

Through the first seven months of 2022, Prince Rupert handled 599,659 laden and empty TEU, down 2 percent from the first seven months of 2021, according to port statistics. The port handled 1.14 million TEU all of last year.

The port’s Fairview container terminal in September will be expanded to an annual throughput capacity of 1.65 million TEU from 1.35 million TEU at present.

https://coh.oss-cn-shenzhen.aliyuncs.com/upload/attachment/2022/08/31/image002_0882ff24504646d896a44491d0082657.jpg

Monday’s opening of a road-rail corridor that will streamline truck haulage in Prince Rupert without increasing traffic in the local community is seen as another step in an effort to attract more export and import transloading operations that the western Canadian port hopes will significantly boost its cargo volumes.

The Fairview-Ridley Connector Corridor, with a private freight roadway and rail sidings, will reduce the drayage distance from the existing transloading facilities to the port’s marine terminals from 12.4 miles to 3.4 miles while diverting the truck trips away from the community’s streets, according to Brian Friesen, vice president of trade development and communications at the Prince Rupert Port Authority (PRPA).

Daily truck traffic generated by the port has grown from a few trips 15 years ago to several hundred today.

“The road and rail corridor directly links Fairview Terminal, both current and future capacity, with future import and export logistics sites … that will offer new opportunities for Canadian businesses to reach global markets through containerized trade,” the PRPA said in a statement.

Prince Rupert has three transloading facilities where forest and agricultural products and plastic pellets are received in bulk cars on the Canadian National Railway and then transloaded into marine containers for export. Exports have increased from virtually none when the port opened in 2007 to more than 30 percent of its total laden container volume today, Friesen said.

Construction is scheduled to begin next year on a large export transloading facility to serve multiple tenants. Exports are expected to “explode” within the next few years to account for half of Prince Rupert’s total container volume, Friesen said.

Port to develop new import transloading facility

The port in the next few years also plans to develop an import transloading facility where laden import marine containers will be transloaded into 53-foot domestic containers that CN will carry to destinations in eastern Canada and the US. The empty marine containers will then be filled with export commodities at the export transload facilities.

“It will all happen behind the port fence,” Friesen said. “There will be no impact on the community.”

Through the first seven months of 2022, Prince Rupert handled 599,659 laden and empty TEU, down 2 percent from the first seven months of 2021, according to port statistics. The port handled 1.14 million TEU all of last year.

The port’s Fairview container terminal in September will be expanded to an annual throughput capacity of 1.65 million TEU from 1.35 million TEU at present.

 

Published Date : 2022-08-19

Canadian National Railway (CN) is shuttling laden import containers from the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert to auxiliary storage yards in the eastern half of Canada to help clear the backlog of marine containers that has accumulated at the West Coast ports.

Yet the new storage, which CN says is already speeding up freight delivery, is adding to incremental costs for intermodal shippers already dealing with rising per diem fees and chassis and driver shortages in eastern Canada.

In a statement to JOC.com, CN said the opening of additional yard space in Toronto and Montreal is the result of requests from the country’s transport ministry, the ports, and trade groups looking to relieve “the surge of Canadian imports that are dwelling on dock or on an anchored vessel on the West Coast.”

Inland bottlenecks, most notably a lack of drayage capacity and chassis in Toronto and Montreal, have resulted in higher rail dwells at Prince Rupert and Vancouver, slowing the inland movement of imports since last summer. Average dwell times for rail containers at Vancouver terminals exceeded seven days in the first week of August, about the same as in late June, according to data from the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. Dwells of longer than three days cause congestion problems, according to terminal operators.

In response, CN has started moving marine containers to one of four “relief” yards — two existing CN intermodal terminals in Mississauga and Valleyfield, near Montreal, and two third-party operated sites in Brampton and Mississauga — according to a Maersk customer advisory posted Tuesday. CN did not specify which containers, nor under what circumstances, freight would be diverted to one of the relief yards.

Effective Aug. 9, CN will charge shippers a shuttle fee of $300 per container for boxes moved to these relief yards, except for the Valleyfield yard, which will cost $550. Shippers will have one day of free time at the facilities, per the Maersk notice, which did not specify what demurrage charges would accrue after the expiration of free time.

CN said the fees cover the cost of operating the yards, adding that in helping to alleviate the backlog in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, the railroad has “moved containers as close as possible to their intended destinations.”

“The fees help offset the costs associated with that effort, especially in the context of a resource shortage of drayage and warehousing,” CN said in the statement. “The results of these efforts have been successful which, in turn, has decreased vessels at anchor as well as ground counts at the container terminals.”

New fees compound truck, chassis shortages

The CN shuttle fee comes ahead of other new costs facing intermodal shippers. Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) issued a new tariff effective Aug. 26 that raises demurrage for marine containers that linger at 11 of the railroad’s Canadian and US ramps.

The increases range from $75 to $125 per day for the first three days of storage past free time. Demurrage for subsequent days will increase by $75 to $275 per day, according to the notice.

CP said in a statement to JOC.com the tariffs were changed “to encourage customers to pick up containers in a timely manner to create more supply chain capacity for all stakeholders. We expect these changes to improve fluidity at those terminals.”

Bruce Rodgers, executive director of the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFFA), told JOC.com the association’s members not only face the new shuttle fee, but additional trucking and demurrage costs if their freight gets diverted to the relief yards.

“This change has resulted in additional costs due to moving the containers between yards, splitting of shipments, and storage charges due to inability to obtain reservations,” Rodgers said.

In addition to the western Canada port backlog, a lack of truck and chassis capacity on the receiving end has exacerbated congestion at the eastern rail ramps, Chris Ford, who chairs CIFFA’s drayage practice, told JOC.com. He added that Canada’s largest chassis manufacturer won’t be able to deliver enough equipment to relieve the deficit for another year.

“There is little to no drayage capacity in Ontario, little to no container storage capacity in Ontario, and there is a container chassis shortage in Ontario,” Ford said. “The situation is a mess.”

https://coh.oss-cn-shenzhen.aliyuncs.com/upload/attachment/2022/08/17/image001_e6d4166ac47b4c38ae336949b1a61b6d.jpg

Canadian National Railway (CN) is shuttling laden import containers from the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert to auxiliary storage yards in the eastern half of Canada to help clear the backlog of marine containers that has accumulated at the West Coast ports.

Yet the new storage, which CN says is already speeding up freight delivery, is adding to incremental costs for intermodal shippers already dealing with rising per diem fees and chassis and driver shortages in eastern Canada.

In a statement to JOC.com, CN said the opening of additional yard space in Toronto and Montreal is the result of requests from the country’s transport ministry, the ports, and trade groups looking to relieve “the surge of Canadian imports that are dwelling on dock or on an anchored vessel on the West Coast.”

Inland bottlenecks, most notably a lack of drayage capacity and chassis in Toronto and Montreal, have resulted in higher rail dwells at Prince Rupert and Vancouver, slowing the inland movement of imports since last summer. Average dwell times for rail containers at Vancouver terminals exceeded seven days in the first week of August, about the same as in late June, according to data from the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority. Dwells of longer than three days cause congestion problems, according to terminal operators.

In response, CN has started moving marine containers to one of four “relief” yards — two existing CN intermodal terminals in Mississauga and Valleyfield, near Montreal, and two third-party operated sites in Brampton and Mississauga — according to a Maersk customer advisory posted Tuesday. CN did not specify which containers, nor under what circumstances, freight would be diverted to one of the relief yards.

Effective Aug. 9, CN will charge shippers a shuttle fee of $300 per container for boxes moved to these relief yards, except for the Valleyfield yard, which will cost $550. Shippers will have one day of free time at the facilities, per the Maersk notice, which did not specify what demurrage charges would accrue after the expiration of free time.

CN said the fees cover the cost of operating the yards, adding that in helping to alleviate the backlog in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, the railroad has “moved containers as close as possible to their intended destinations.”

“The fees help offset the costs associated with that effort, especially in the context of a resource shortage of drayage and warehousing,” CN said in the statement. “The results of these efforts have been successful which, in turn, has decreased vessels at anchor as well as ground counts at the container terminals.”

New fees compound truck, chassis shortages

The CN shuttle fee comes ahead of other new costs facing intermodal shippers. Canadian Pacific Railway (CP) issued a new tariff effective Aug. 26 that raises demurrage for marine containers that linger at 11 of the railroad’s Canadian and US ramps.

The increases range from $75 to $125 per day for the first three days of storage past free time. Demurrage for subsequent days will increase by $75 to $275 per day, according to the notice.

CP said in a statement to JOC.com the tariffs were changed “to encourage customers to pick up containers in a timely manner to create more supply chain capacity for all stakeholders. We expect these changes to improve fluidity at those terminals.”

Bruce Rodgers, executive director of the Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association (CIFFA), told JOC.com the association’s members not only face the new shuttle fee, but additional trucking and demurrage costs if their freight gets diverted to the relief yards.

“This change has resulted in additional costs due to moving the containers between yards, splitting of shipments, and storage charges due to inability to obtain reservations,” Rodgers said.

In addition to the western Canada port backlog, a lack of truck and chassis capacity on the receiving end has exacerbated congestion at the eastern rail ramps, Chris Ford, who chairs CIFFA’s drayage practice, told JOC.com. He added that Canada’s largest chassis manufacturer won’t be able to deliver enough equipment to relieve the deficit for another year.

“There is little to no drayage capacity in Ontario, little to no container storage capacity in Ontario, and there is a container chassis shortage in Ontario,” Ford said. “The situation is a mess.”

 

Threats of port disruptions saw volumes brought forward to the first half of the year. Even with an expected easing in the second half, import volumes will still exceed 2021

US CONTAINERISED imports are likely to see a net gain compared with last year, despite an expected slowdown in volumes in the second half of this year as the economy cools.

“Retail sales are still growing, but the economy is slowing down and that is reflected in cargo imports,” said National Retail Federation vice-president Jonathan Gold.

Data from the NRF and Hackett Associates showed that US ports handled 2.3m teu in June, the latest month for which figures are available. 

That was a 5.9% decline on the record 2.4m teu volumes imported in May but remains 4.9% above the corresponding month last year.

June’s results brought the first half of the year to 13.5m teu, a 5.5% increase year on year.

“The heady days of growth in imports are quickly receding,” said Hackett Associates founder Ben Hackett. “The outlook is for a decline in volumes compared with 2021 during the next few months, and the decline is expected to deepen in 2023.”

While numbers for July are not finalised, they are expected to see 3.2% increase over 2021, before the tide turns in August with a 3% year-on-year decline. The remaining months of the year are forecast to be between static or down on last year. 

Final numbers for the second half of the year are forecast at 12.8m teu, down 1.5% on the second half of 2021, while the full year will still come out 2% higher at 26.3m teu.

The NRF said that volumes had been front-loaded this year as shippers sought to avoid potential disruptions caused by the expiration of the US west coast labour contract on July 1, with early shipments driving second-quarter volumes. 

“Lower volumes may help ease congestion at some ports, but others are still seeing backups and global supply chain challenges are far from over,” said Mr Gold. “Our biggest concern is the potential for disruption because of separate labour negotiations at the west coast ports and the freight railroads. Concluding both sets of negotiations without disruption is critical as the important holiday season approaches.” 

News from Lloyd’s List by James Baker

 

EFFORTS to reach a settlement in the pay dispute at port of Felixstowe have ground to a halt following a meeting with UK arbitration service Acas. 

Unite, which represents the 1,900 hourly paid workers that are set to strike for eight days from August 21, rejected an offer from Hutchison, the operator of the UK’s largest container port, of a £500 ($605) lump sum, in addition to a 7% pay offer. 

“We are disappointed and regret that despite our best efforts we have still been unable to reach an agreement with the hourly branch of Unite,” a spokesperson for the port said in a statement. 

Another branch of Unite representing salaried workers has agreed to put a similar offer to its members ahead of the threatened strike. 

“The hourly branch of Unite has again rejected the port’s improved position and refused to put it to its members,” the spokesperson said. “We urge them to consult their members on the latest offer as soon as possible.” 

Felixstowe said Unite had also turned down the port’s offer to meet again for further talks, but the Unite said it would still negotiate. 

“Unite’s door remains open for further talks but strike action will go ahead unless the company tables an offer that our members can accept,” said Unite national officer Robert Morton. “Felixstowe docks is massively profitable. In 2020 alone, it raked in £61m in pretax profits and paid dividends of £99m. It can afford to put forward a reasonable pay offer to our members but once again has chosen not to.” 

The port has warned there would be “no winners” from industrial action, which would result in lost earnings for the port and employees. 

“Our focus has been to find a solution that works for our employees and protects the future success of the port,” the spokesperson said. 

Any action at the port, which has not seen a strike since 1989, would have a ripple effect across UK supply chains, according to freight forwarder Zencargo. 

“We predict shortages in equipment, further congestion, increased dwell times at the port and changes to scheduling,” it said. 

Port calls at Felixstowe would be reduced or skipped altogether. While some calls may be able to divert to other UK gateways such as London Gateway and Southampton, these facilities would not be able to handle the entirety of Felixstowe cargo. 

That would mean cargoes likely ending up at European ports as carriers continued their voyages. 

But with congestion running high in Europe, this would only add to disruption there as containers were offloaded to then be feed back to the UK. 

“Congestion increased last week at Dutch and German ports, and could worsen further if Felixstowe-bound cargo is diverted to north continent ports to avoid the potential strike,” analysts at Linerlytica noted. “German port workers could also resume strikes after the August 26 deadline for negotiations to be concluded with their employers.”

News from Lloyd’s List by James Baker

Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka says clearing cargo—rail cargo, in particular— is critical to avoiding nationwide logjam during peak season.

The Port of Los Angeles processed 876,611 TEU in June, edging out last year as the best June in the port’s history.

At the mid-point of 2022, Los Angeles has handled more than 5.4 million TEUs, matching last year’s record-setting pace. Next door, the Port of Long Beach also set a monthly record in June, closing out its busiest quarter on record.

Halfway through the year, we’ve been able to reduce the number of vessels waiting to berth by 75%, allowing dockworkers to efficiently process more vessels,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka.

“We’re already beginning to handle back-to-school, fall fashion and year-end holiday goods. Despite inflation and higher-than-usual inventory, we expect cargo volume to remain robust the second half of the year,” Seroka added.

Rail Congestion Threatens Nationwide Logjam

In his monthly media briefing, Seroka was joined by Retired Gen. Stephen R. Lyons, who was recently appointed Port and Supply Chain Envoy to the Biden-Harris Administration Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force. Lyons discussed supply chain challenges nationwide and what is being done to improve the movement of goods and help lower costs for Americans.

June 2022 loaded imports reached 444,680 TEUs for a decrease of 5% compared to the previous year, but 12% higher than the previous five-year average for June.

Exports remain soft, with loaded exports coming in at 93,890 TEUs, a 2.3% decrease compared to 2021. Exports have now declined 39 of the past 44 months at the Port of Los Angeles.

Empty containers reached 338,041 TEUs, an increase of 8.1% compared to last year. “We’ll continue to see these heightened levels of empties repositioned as imports remain strong from Asia,” said Seroka.

Seroka highlighted three takeaways at the midway through 2https://gcaptain.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/port-of-los-angeles–scaled.jpeg022.

“First, looking back, we hit the mark on an early Lunar New Year, handled inventory replenishment in Q2, and reduced waiting vessels by 75%, all this to be ready for an expected early June peak season arrival,” said Seroka.

“Second, looking at the back half of the year, cargo arriving will look different than what’s on the ground now. We’ll be seeing back to school, fall fashion, Halloween and the all-important year-end holiday goods coming across the Pacific in the weeks and months ahead. Even though some retailers have high inventories and may look to discount goods, I expect imports to remain strong, though tapered, versus last year.

“And lastly, all eyes are focussed on improving our rail products, full stop. We now have more than 29,000 rail containers on our docks—that number should be more in the 9,000 unit range. Rail cargo is sitting an average of 7.5 days—it should be two days of dwell time and nothing should be using the 9+ day mark, yet we have 20,000 containers in that important aging category now,” Seroka added.

Clogged Warehouses And Rail Delays Signal New Supply Chain Woes

Seroka concluded that action needs to be taken now to avoid further disruption not just in Southern California, but across the country as peak season kicks off.

“Cargo owners must pick up their boxes at inland rail terminals faster than they are today. The western railroads need to provide crews, engine power and rail cars faster back to the West Coast. Marine terminals, shipping lines and the ports need to provide key data to prioritize evacuation of this cargo quicker. The bottom line, we must take action on this issue immediately to avoid a nationwide logjam,” Seroka said.

The Port of Long Beach reported its most active June, boosted by increased consumer demand as retailers stock shelves for back-to-school shopping. The month capped the port’s strongest quarter on record in Q2, marking two consecutive quarters of record setting cargo volumes despite headwinds from inflation and fears of a looming recession.

Long Beach joins its neighbor at the San Pedro Bay Port Complex, the Port of Angeles, in setting new monthly records in June.

Dockworkers and terminal operators at the Port of Long Beach moved 835,412 TEU in June, up 15.3% from the same month last year and surpassing the previous record set in June 2018 by 83,224 TEUs. Imports rose 16.4% to 415,677 TEUs, while exports saw a 1.4% decrease to 115,303 TEUs. Empty containers moved through the port jumped 21.6% to 304,433 TEUs.

More busy months are anticipated ahead.

“We are anticipating a robust summer season as consumer demand continues to drive cargo to our docks,” said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero. “We expect to remain moderately busy in the coming months, and we will work to promptly process containers lingering at the Port.”

“Our waterfront workforce continues to move cargo at a record-setting pace,” said Long Beach Harbor Commission President Steven Neal. “Our strong partnerships with labor and industry continue to make us a leader in trans-Pacific trade.”

The monthly figures come after the amount of aging cargo at the Port of Long Beach surpassed late October levels when the San Pedro Bay ports first announced the Container Dwell Fee for aging cargo. Both Los Angeles and Long Beach have continued to postpone charging the fee.

As of today, more than 25,000 containers have been sitting on Port of Long Beach docks for nine days or more, with another 27,000 at the Port of Los Angeles.

The Port of Long Beach said June’s cargo influx arrived as pandemic-induced shutdowns were lifted in China, retailers stocked up on back-to-school supplies and continued “robust” consumer demand despite inflation and the potential threat of an economic recession next year. Consumer spending is anticipated to remain strong through the end of this year due to the healthy job market, but rising costs for food, gasoline, utilities and other goods are delivering a blow to consumer confidence, the port said.

Looking at the first half of the year, Long Beach has moved 5,007,778 TEUs, up 5.3% from 2021’s record setting pace. The second quarter also marked the port’s best quarter overall with 2,547,119 TEUs moved from April 1 to June 30, breaking the previous record set during the first quarter of 2022 by 86,460 TEUs.

With West Coast rail congestion building and dock and rail worker labor negotiations already overtime, the weeks and months ahead will continue to be something to watch.