Disclaimer

The articles excerpted on this site report on the state of the industry as seen by mainstream media, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the officers of the ILWU Coast Longshore Division.

Port of Tacoma reports best year since 2008; plans to diversify

Two recent news items from Tacoma’s News Tribune:

Port of Tacoma reports best year since 2008

A new report from the Port of Tacoma shows container traffic up nearly 16 percent last year over 2011 to 1.711 million container units.

That container volume was pumped up by the move of the Grand Alliance container [...]

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Port of Tacoma container numbers up 37 percent for September

The positive effects of the Grand Alliance shipping consortium’s move to the Port of Tacoma were again showing in port container volume figures released this week.

Those figures show the port handled 195,718 container units last month, some 36.9 percent greater than the same month last year.

The Grand Alliance, a shipping partnership among four [...]

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New shipping lines boost Tacoma's July volumes

Container volumes through the Port of Tacoma jumped 20 percent compared to the same month last year, boosted by the addition of new shipping lines and services, as well as continued strong volumes from established customers.

The Grand Alliance began calling Tacoma’s Washington United Terminals July 2. The consortium includes three of the world’s largest [...]

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Maersk Renews Seattle Calls

The Port of Seattle got good news for a change on Tuesday when Maersk Line renewed its agreement to call SSA’s Terminal 18 at the port.

Maersk Line will continue to call the port with its TP 9 service from Asia, which is a vessel-sharing agreement with CMA CGM on which both lines deploy eight [...]

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NYK Won’t Provide Chassis in Denver, Salt Lake

NYK Line, which has been getting out of the business of providing chassis at ports and terminals in the U.S., said Monday it would extend the withdrawal to the Denver/Salt Lake City market on July 1.

NYK has already stopped providing chassis in larger markets. It no longer provides them in the Port of New [...]

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NYK Ends Free Chassis in Pacific Northwest

NYK Line (North America) said it would quit providing chassis to customers in the Tacoma-Seattle-Portland market, effective July 1. … As ocean carriers have reduced their direct involvement in providing chassis directly to shippers, leasing companies and other third parties have stepped up their programs for rental of chassis to truckers.

More in the Journal [...]

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Carriers report losses

Several major carriers have recently reported losses. Among them:

Hapag-Lloyd Posts $172 Million First Quarter Loss

German ocean carrier Hapag-Lloyd’s first quarter net loss widened to 132.4 million euros ($172 million) from 22.1 million euros ($28.7 million) a year ago as lower freight rates and higher fuel costs outweighed double-digit growth in container traffic. (More [...]

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Japan’s NYK Line Reports $903 Million FY Loss

NYK Line said declining revenue and rising costs produced a net loss of 72.8 billion yen ($903 million) for its 2011 fiscal year ended March 31, but the Japanese carrier forecasts a profit for FY2012.

NYK’s liner shipping division reported an operating loss of $545 million, reversing a $387 million profit in fiscal 2010, as [...]

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Trans-Pacific Carriers Plan Another Round of Westbound Rate Hikes

Container shipping lines in the Westbound Transpacific Stabilization Agreement have announced further rate hikes for dry and reefer cargoes to boost revenues on U.S.–Asia lanes.

The WTSA is recommending a dry container rate boost ofUS$50 per 40-foot container (FEU) from the Pacific Southwest ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland from May 15. From [...]

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Carriers Face $20 Billion Cash Call in 2012, Alphaliner Says

Ocean carriers could face a short-term funding call of up to $20 billion in 2012 as they are not generating sufficient cash to cover interest payments and meet capital requirements, according to container market analyst Alphaliner.

Most carriers appear to have successfully weathered the market downturn in 2011 but “a number of them continue to [...]

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Tacoma port says access to rail, roads had role in shipping win

No one is saying definitively yet what gave the Port of Tacoma the edge over the Port of Seattle in the contest to win the business of three container shipping lines, but Port of Tacoma officials say it wasn’t just money.

Port spokeswoman Tara Mattina said Friday that Tacoma’s port has several advantages over its [...]

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Seattle’s port losing big customer to Tacoma

A consortium of three shipping lines that accounts for about 20 percent of the Port of Seattle’s container traffic is moving to Tacoma — the latest shift in the long-running rivalry between the two seaports.

The “Grand Alliance” consortium of Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd, Japan’s NYK Line and OOCL of Hong Kong, which now operates at Terminal [...]

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Evergreen linking up with three Asian shippers for route between Americas

Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), Taiwan’s largest container shipping firm by fleet size, has announced that it is scheduled to work with three other Asian container shippers in operating a route between North America and South America from late next month.

The three other Asian container shippers are Hyundai Merchant Marine Co and Hanjin Shipping Co [...]

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Six container lines form new Far East-Europe trade alliance

Six leading container shipping lines have agreed to create one of the largest vessel networks in the Far East-to-Europe trade lane.

The new G6 Alliance will create one of the leading networks in the Far East-to-Europe and Far East-to-Mediterranean container shipping markets with more than 90 ships in nine services calling at more than 40 [...]

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Maersk says it is prepared to outlast rivals

Maersk Line, with almost 16% of the global container market, is betting it can outlast such publicly traded competitors as Japan’s MOL and NYK, both of which have cut capacity to cope with falling freight rates.

At the beginning of this month APMM revealed that Maersk Line, which is often regarded as a barometer of [...]

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