Tag: <span>Canadian Ports</span>

The completion of a centralized scheduling system at the Port of Vancouver will provide marine terminals with at least four days of advance notice of container ship arrivals, allowing for better labor and equipment planning to mitigate import surges.

The system, launched two years ago by the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, helps coordinate the five different types of vessels, ranging from bulk to cruise ships, that call on some 29 marine terminals in three different districts. The port also presents unique navigational challenges, from confined waters to changing river flow conditions, said Capt. Gord Cooper, chair of the Fraser River Pilots Committee.

Through the centralized scheduling system, the nearly 450 port stakeholders now have a “port-wide view” of vessel arrivals, said Sean Baxter, the port’s harbor master and director of marine operations. Similar to other North American West Coast ports, Vancouver experiences seasonal container cargo surges tied to the pre-Lunar New Year and holiday shipping seasons.

Baxter said the centralized scheduling system will allow vessel operators to optimize vessel speeds when moving to berth or anchorage, terminal operators will have greater visibility to vessel arrivals and Canadian National Railway (CN) will be better able to handle CN trains run over the Second Narrows Rail Bridge, which must be raised regularly to allow vessels to pass underneath.

“This helps us to meet the moment,” he said.

Source: JOC

Challenged by severe winter weather in the Canadian interior and a backlog of containers from longshore labor disruption in late 2024, marine terminal operators at the Port of Vancouver continue to grapple with a problem that seems ever-present: extended dwell times for containers moving inland by rail.

Railroads normally run fewer, shorter trains during Canadian winters, but this season’s weather restrictions were more severe than usual, which has caused eastbound containers to pile up on the docks over the past three months.

“Inclement weather across much of Canada in February, including a deep freeze in the prairies and a severe snowstorm in Ontario, affected rail turnaround times and reduced railcar availability on the West Coast,” a spokesperson for the Port of Vancouver told the Journal of Commerce.

“Shorter trains mean more people and equipment are required to move the same amount of goods,” a spokesperson for Canadian National Railway (CN) said.

The average rail container dwell time in March at Vancouver’s four container terminals was 7.7 days. While that was marginally down from 8.5 days in February and 8.3 days in January, according to port statistics, it’s well above the four to five days terminal operators on North America’s West Coast say they can live with in order to keep rail dwells at their facilities manageable.

Infor Nexus pegged March rail dwells at seven days, down from nearly 10 days in February.

Vancouver’s dwell times have been above five days since last November.

Importers in Canada and the US say rail congestion at Vancouver is a given during the peak shipping season in August through October, when the port and inland rail networks must handle greater volumes than they are designed to handle. But Vancouver has struggled with extended rail dwells over the past several months, well beyond the end of the traditional peak season.

A forwarder said it has taken him as long as 30 days to retrieve some of his containers from Vancouver, saying whether it’s a weather event or labor action or a peak season surge in imports, excessive rail container dwell times are a condition he’s come to expect at the port, calling it “business as usual.”

Stakeholders, however, say they see signs of improvement.

A spokesperson for Canadian Pacific Kansas City Southern (CPKC) said its rail container dwell times are improving at the Vanterm and Centerm terminals in Vancouver. According to the port’s website, CPKC’s rail container dwell at Vanterm on Monday was three to five days, with the average Centerm dwell at zero to three days. Still, CPKC’s dwells were seven days or longer at the Deltaport terminal.

“Driven by dwell improvements at Centerm and Vanterm terminals, we are seeing elevated volumes that we are now moving with improved network and overall supply chain performance following weeks of sustained extreme winter temperatures that impacted operations across the Canadian supply chain,” the CPKC spokesman said.

CN is targeting later this spring for a return to normal at its operations.

“Assuming no further weather impacts, CN anticipates the trend line for container dwell to continue downward through the early spring, getting back to more normal dwell times by mid-late spring,” the CN spokesperson said.

The Vancouver spokesperson said as April progresses, rail business is returning to seasonal norms, “with on-dock volumes and dwell times both trending positively.”

Source: JOC

Port of Vancouver stakeholders expect they will have to navigate at least three more weeks of congestion as Canada’s largest port works to clear a backlog of rail containers that built up in December.

A confluence of factors — including vessel bunching at Asian load ports, a pre-Lunar New Year cargo surge, a strike by dockworker foremen in November and shorter trains due to winter operating conditions — combined to cause congestion at the port and reduce Vancouver’s railcar availability last month. As a result, the average rail container dwell time at the port’s four container terminals spiked to 6.9 days in December — the highest since last March – and up from 5.2 days in November and 4.5 days in October, according to data on the port’s website.

“We are seeing an increase in the number of vessels waiting to enter the Port of Vancouver due to arrival delays associated with winter weather in Asia and the seasonal pre-Lunar New Year impact causing a surge in volume,” a spokesperson for the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority told the Journal of Commerce Wednesday. “As such, we anticipate that high on-dock times will continue for the rest of January.”

Terminal operators and the railroads say they are chipping away at the rail container backlog and note conditions will improve further at the end of the month when import volumes are expected to drop significantly due to many factories in Asia closing for a week or two for the Lunar New Year celebrations that start Jan. 29.

Train restrictions during Canadian cold snap

Canadian National Railway (CN) in December was already recovering from a backlog of rail containers from the dockworkers’ strike and vessel bunching when a cold snap in Western Canada resulted in operating restrictions, including running shorter trains, that impacted CN’s network velocity, a CN spokesperson told the Journal of Commerce.

“CN is working closely with the port operators to clear out these volumes as the vessel discharge normalizes over the next three weeks,” a spokesperson for the railroad said. “We are already seeing some improvements and are confident that the dwell metric will fall back to normal levels as we catch up on the backlog over the next few weeks.”

Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) said Thursday its railcars are cycling efficiently through its network and that the supply of cars is good. Demand is forecast to remain strong through January, a CPKC spokesperson said.

DP World Canada, which operates the Centerm terminal in Vancouver, said it is working with the railroads to handle the increased import volumes leading up to the Lunar New Year on Jan. 29.

“We should be back to normal in a few weeks,” said CEO Doug Smith.

Meanwhile, the elevated rail container dwell times at the marine terminals have not had an impact on drayage operations in Vancouver, said David Earle, CEO of the British Columbia Trucking Association. The only change Earle said he’s noted in recent days is that a small number of inbound containers that had been booked to leave the terminals by rail are being redirected to long-haul truckers for movement inland.

Prince Rupert back to normal

The Port of Prince Rupert, which faced challenges similar to Vancouver last month, saw its rail container dwell times spike to an average of nearly 10 days in mid-December, said Brian Friesen, vice president of trade development at the port. The average dwell dropped to 6.1 days for the week of Dec. 20 and has continued to slide in January.

“The dwells are now below two days,” Friesen said. “It’s all fluid now.”

Source:

Mongelluzzo, B. (2025, January 9). Vancouver braces for congestion, High Rail dwells through January. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/vancouver-braces-for-congestion-high-rail-dwells-through-january-5919982

Canada’s Labor Minister on Tuesday took direct action to end coast-to-coast port closures by ordering binding arbitration in contract disputes between maritime employers and longshore workers, forcing ports to reopen.

Steve MacKinnon said in a statement that he has invoked authority under Canada’s labor code that will force longshore unions in British Columbia and Montreal and their respective employer groups to come to terms on new collective bargaining agreements with the aid of a government arbitrator.

In advance of the arbitration proceedings, MacKinnon also said his agency will order the reopening of ports in those jurisdictions, with previously expired longshore contracts being extended in the interim.

“I have directed the Canada Industrial Relations Board [CIRB] to order the resumption of all operations and functions at the ports, and to assist the parties by imposing final and binding arbitration,” MacKinnon said. “I have also directed the board to extend the term of the existing collective agreements until new ones are reached.”

MacKinnon’s move will end a nearly two-week work stoppage at the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert after the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) locked out members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 after its vote for a strike.

The BCMEA tried to end the lockout this weekend through direct talks with Local 514 overseen by government mediators, but those talks did not result in a deal. Maritime employers there have offered Local 514 a 19.2% wage increase over four years, along with a one-time lump sum payment of C$21,000 and a boost to other existing benefits.

The BCMEA said in a statement Tuesday that it “intends to follow direction received from the CIRB and will inform member employers of operational updates as soon as possible.”

“We look forward to safely resuming operations across Canada’s West Coast ports,” the group said.

The coast-to-coast port closures have delayed the discharge and loading of ocean freight and forced Canada’s two main railroads to halt intermodal operations at the affected ports. But there does not appear to be any major disruptions in terms of a high number of anchored ships or severe backlogs at the ports.

 

Maersk said last week that vessels in its TP1 service to Canada’s west coast have remained at berth in Vancouver and Prince Rupert, with other scheduled vessels still en route to both ports. It said that vessels in the carrier’s Canada Express Service, which is jointly operated with CMA CGM, also remain en route to Montreal.

Hapag-Lloyd said in an advisory Tuesday that it has three ships at berth in Montreal currently, with two idling at anchorage in the Saint Lawrence River awaiting the port’s reopening. On the west coast, one ship in THE Alliance’s PN3 service remains at berth in Vancouver, with vessels in other services awaiting a berth. Another vessel in THE Alliance’s PN4 service is waiting outside of Prince Rupert for an available berth, the carrier said.

Details please refer to the JOC news.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024h, November 12). BC, Montreal ports set to reopen under orders from Canada’s Labor chief. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/bc-montreal-ports-set-to-reopen-under-orders-from-canadas-labor-chief-5792214

A growing number of container ships on Tuesday were waiting out the labor lockout at British Columbia ports in hopes of a speedy resolution. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, the strike at marine terminals in Montreal is halting all rail service at that port.

Maersk said in an advisory that two ships in its TP1 service, the 6,350-TEU Marcos V and the 8,714-TEU San Felipe, are currently at anchorage at the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert, respectively. A third ship, the 5,085-TEU Seattle Express, is still expected to call Vancouver’s Fraser Surrey terminal this week, with any change in its rotation contingent upon the duration of the port’s closure.

Container terminals at Vancouver and Prince Rupert were effectively shuttered after the British Columbia Maritime Employers Association locked out members of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 following a strike vote by its members. The strike by longshore foremen began Monday morning.

The two sides remain at odds over terms of a new contract as well as the implementation of new technology at DP World’s Vancouver terminal. The prior contract expired in March 2023.

Management is still onsite at Vancouver terminals monitoring refrigerated containers, according to a person familiar with the issue, but truck gates and berth operations are halted. Vancouver is Canada’s largest container terminal.

The 12,726-TEU YM Target remains at berth at Vancouver’s Deltaport, with initial plans to wait out the work stoppage, the source added. Three other container ships are at anchorage outside of Vancouver, while the 4,250-TEU Cosco Auckland remains at berth at Prince Rupert.

The backlog of ships, though, may grow. The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority said Tuesday that seven container ships have requested an anchorage at the port.

While trying to maintain vessel schedules, Maersk is offering shippers relief from any charges associated with the work stoppage. It has suspended demurrage and export container detention across British Columbia ports, but Maersk said it is “still maintaining certain conditions for import detention.” The carrier said it will also open off-dock empty return locations for containers.

The work stoppage along Canada’s West Coast has also shut down rail operations. Canadian National Railway (CN) suspended westbound rail service to British Columbia ports, with Canadian Pacific-Kansas City (CPKC) also stopping acceptance of export and empty containers for British Columbia.

CN suspends Montreal service

The shutdown of Canada’s West Coast ports comes as longshore workers affiliated with the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 375 stage an indefinite strike against two marine terminals operated by Termont in Montreal.

The Termont strike is also forcing CN to suspend all rail service in and out of Montreal, including at the Racine and Cast terminals operated by Montreal Gateway Terminals, which are not affected by the strike, Hapag-Lloyd said in an advisory Tuesday. The suspension also includes interchange services with CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern in the Ohio Valley.

“This action is due to operational constraints and uncertainty arising from the ongoing renewal of the Montreal longshoremen collective agreement,” Hapag-Lloyd said. “As a result, CN will suspend and remove all capacity at their inland terminals for exports destined for Cast and Racine until further notice.”

Separately, Montreal’s Maritime Employers Association (MEA) started suspending salary guarantees for striking longshore workers Tuesday, saying it was necessary to “reduce the cumulative financial impact of repeated strikes and lower volumes at the Port of Montreal.”

Source:

Angell, M. (2024, November 5). BC container ports set for shutdown after foremen begin strike. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/bc-container-ports-set-for-shutdown-after-foremen-begin-strike-5785499

British Columbia’s container ports are set for an indefinite shut down this week as maritime employers planned to lock out longshore foremen after they began a strike Monday. While the lockout would not technically affect other longshore workers, uncertainty about the job actions taken by the foremen’s union will force marine terminals to shutter.

The British Columbia Maritime Employers Association (BCMEA) said in a statement Monday that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) 514, representing about 730 longshore foremen, began its strike Monday morning at ports across the province. In response, the BCMEA said it would begin a lockout of Local 514 members with Monday’s evening shift and “continuing until further notice.”

Canadian labor law requires that employers see strike activity commence before issuing a formal lockout notice. That strike activity could take the form of an actual picket, a refusal to work an overtime shift, or similar job actions.

Canada’s Labor Minister Steve MacKinnon said in a statement Saturday that while federal mediators are available, “it is the responsibility of the parties to reach an agreement.”

The Vancouver Fraser Port Authority said that it expects disruptions at the Port of Vancouver beginning Monday. Vancouver is Canada’s largest container port.

The vessel impact appears limited so far as only one ship, the 12,726-TEU YM Target, is currently at berth in Vancouver, according to Sea-web a sister product of the Journal of Commerce within S&P Global. The 4,250-TEU Cosco Auckland is currently at berth at the Port of Prince Rupert, which would also be affected by a work stoppage. No container ships are sitting at Vancouver’s anchorages due to inclement weather in the region.

At least seven container ships are scheduled to call Vancouver through mid-November, Sea-web data shows. Three are expected to call Prince Rupert.

Canadian Pacific-Kansas City railroad said in a schedule update Monday that it’s no longer accepting export cargo for Vancouver due to the strike.

Union ‘extremely angry’ about lockout

Local 514 said in a statement last week that its members are “extremely angry” that the BCMEA planned to lock out its members. The union said its members were only planning to refuse overtime work or to implement new technology at the port, rather than a full-blown walkout. The union alleged the lockout is an “attempt to force the federal government to intervene in the dispute.”

But the BCMEA said in a Saturday statement that the lockout was a necessary precaution. Canadian labor law allows unions to change from one type of job action to another, creating a risk for a full-blown walkout, BCMEA said. Due to the heavy reliance on overtime shifts for cargo handling, a refusal to work overtime would severely disrupt port operations anyway, and terminals won’t request longshore labor without union supervision.

“Once a union commences strike action, the Canada Labor Code has no restrictions on the union subsequently changing the nature of its strike,” the BCMEA said in Saturday’s statement. “For example, a strike may start as an overtime ban and escalate — in minutes, hours or days — to a full-scale strike action without notice, where all workers walk off the job. This potential creates tremendous uncertainty and significant operational and safety challenges for operators.”

Local 514 has been working without a collective bargaining agreement since March 2023. The BCMEA is offering longshore foremen a 19.2% raise over four years, similar to the pay raise accepted by other ILWU longshore workers in Canada.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024f, November 4). BC container ports set for shutdown after foremen begin strike. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/bc-container-ports-set-for-shutdown-after-foremen-begin-strike-5785499

The Port of Montreal is warning that shippers may face diverted cargoes as an indefinite strike began Thursday at two marine terminals handling Mediterranean Shipping Co. container services, with over two dozen vessels facing an impact depending on the length of the current work stoppage.

The Viau and Maisonneuve marine terminals operated by Termont International closed to ship, rail and truck traffic Thursday morning as members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 375, which represents 1,200 dockworkers at Montreal, walked off the job.

Montreal Port Authority (MPA) Chief Executive Julie Gascon said in a statement Thursday that the shutdown “undermines the reliability and image of our logistics sector.” The open-ended strike follows a three-day, port-wide work stoppage at the start of October, a boycott of overtime work and another port-wide strike this past Sunday.

“This new work stoppage at the Viau and Maisonneuve terminals, at the very hub of our supply chain, can only have a deeply negative impact on thousands of local businesses, as well as on the economy of Quebec and Canada as a whole,” Gascon said. Montreal’s two other international container terminals remain open.

The strike at the two terminals will idle more than 1 million TEUs of Montreal’s total 2.3 million TEUs in terminal capacity.

The MPA said five ships with combined capacity of 18,000 TEUs are currently headed for the two terminals, with those ships carrying time-sensitive pharmaceutical and medical goods. Refrigerated containers holding such goods are already backlogged at the port due to the earlier labor actions, the MPA said, adding that some scheduled outbound rail service has been canceled due to the backlog.

Over the next three weeks, 26 ships are scheduled to call the two terminals, with the MPA saying that vessels “could change their port of destination” due to the strike.

“It is imperative that the parties reach an agreement,” Gascon said. “The need to reach an agreement quickly is acute and cannot be ignored.”

MSC, whose terminal arm jointly owns and operates Termont International, said in a customer advisory Wednesday that it is “working to minimize disruptions to our customers’ supply chains” and that “vessel impacts will be communicated as available and relevant.”

The Maritime Employers Association (MEA), which represents Montreal’s terminals and stevedores, said Thursday it “deplores” the strike. The MEA and Local 375 have been in protracted negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement since the last one expired at the end of 2023.

The MEA said in its statement that Local 375 has made a demand to change work hours without formal negotiations. It said that “schedules used on the different docks … called into question by the union in recent days, are enshrined in the collective agreement in force and cannot be used as a bargaining chip for a strike targeting a single operator, as is the case today.”

The CUPE did not respond to a request for comment.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024, October 31). Montreal warns of vessel diversions as strike against MSC Terminals Begins. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/montreal-warns-of-vessel-diversions-as-strike-against-msc-terminals-begins-5783311

Two marine terminals handling Mediterranean Shipping Co.’s Montreal container services face a work stoppage starting this week after longshore workers there voted to authorize an indefinite strike targeting nearly half of the port’s container capacity.

Termont International said Monday that Local 375 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) notified it that an “unlimited strike” will occur at Montreal’s Maisonneuve and Viau terminals starting Thursday at 11 AM local time.

The terminal operator urged shippers with cargo at both terminals to schedule pickups by Wednesday evening.

The strike at the two terminals will idle more than 1 million TEUs of Montreal’s total 2.3 million TEUs in terminal capacity. The port’s two other international container terminals, Racine and Cast, won’t be affected by the work stoppage.

Termont, a joint venture between MSC’s Terminal Investment Limited, SSA Marine and Canadian stevedore Logistec, primarily handles MSC’s trans-Atlantic and north-south services into Montreal. The services include the Montreal Express 1 from Italy, the Med Canadian service and the Canada Gulf Bridge service that spans Mexico and US Gulf ports.

MSC’s current schedule shows at least four of its ships — Anya, Celine, Nahara and England — scheduled to arrive at the Termont terminals by the end of the week. Another two ships in MSC services — Levina III and OOCL St. Lawrence — are scheduled to arrive at Montreal’s other terminals.

Local 375’s latest labor action represents a further escalation of pressure tactics against the Maritime Employers Association (MEA), which has yet to agree on a new contract covering the port’s 1,200 longshore workers. Local 375 also started an ongoing boycott of overtime work at the port and held a three-day work stoppage at the Viau and Maisonneuve terminals at the start of October. This past Sunday, Local 375 conducted a one-day, port-wide strike at Montreal.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024d, October 29). Montreal dockworkers target MSC’s terminals for strike this week. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/montreal-dockworkers-target-mscs-terminals-for-strike-this-week-5781453

The Port of Montreal is warning shippers about the risk of delays and a growing container backlog due to dockworkers refusing overtime work. The port’s warning comes as Canada’s labor minister suggested a further cooling off period in hopes that a new mediator will help resolve the long standoff between Montreal’s longshore union and maritime employers.

The Montreal Port Authority (MPA) said the refusal by Local 375 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) to work overtime “could result in processing delays and a backlog of containers waiting to be handled” at the port. The port said in a statement Wednesday the delays would hit Montreal’s four main terminals for international container services, along with other related facilities.

The port said that up to 10 vessels expected to arrive at the port could face delays due to the overtime strike. Liquid bulk, grain handling and short-sea container service remain unaffected.

“The Montreal Port Authority remains concerned about the impact of pressure tactics on the logistics chain and on the supply of goods and commodities for businesses and the public,” the MPA said. “Our teams are actively working to minimize the impact of disruptions and ensure the smooth running of port activities.”

Local 375’s overtime strike stems from the latest hurdle in contract negotiations between the union and the Maritime Employers Association (MEA) over work scheduling. Along with the overtime strike, Montreal dockworkers hit two of Montreal’s busiest container terminals with a three-day work stoppage two weeks ago.

The union’s 1,200 members at Montreal have been without a contract since the end of 2023 despite federal mediators overseeing those talks since December.

The MEA said Wednesday that in a recent meeting with employers and the union, Canada’s Labor Minister Steve MacKinnon proposed that a “special mediator” be appointed, “so the parties can resume negotiations, without any pressure tactic from either party, for a period of 90 days.”

The MEA said it was considering MacKinnon’s proposal, with a response from employers and the union expected by Friday.

Source:

Angell, M. (2024b, October 17). Montreal says congestion risk grows as dockworkers refuse overtime. Journal of Commerce. https://www.joc.com/article/montreal-says-congestion-risk-grows-as-dockworkers-refuse-overtime-5751118