1185 words 4 minute read – Let’s do this!
Happy Halloween everyone! Or as I like to call it “Holiday decorating eve”. Halloween to most of us means the kickstart to the holiday season, and that also means only 2 months left in 2024. This year was a whirlwind, another slow start to the year in the industry and with a little disruption seems to be a stronger Q4 than last year. How will the next 2 months play out in the midst of a U.S. Presidential election? We would love to hear your thoughts and we are always here to help make industry disruption easier- We encourage you to follow the Port X Logistics LLC LinkedIn page for up to date news and solutions for your supply chain, and to get on the list for this weekly Market Update Newsletter and future industry related news sent direct to your inbox email Marketing@portxlogistics.com
As planned a partial and unlimited strike by longshoremen at the Port of Montreal began at 11a.m. this morning. A potential 320 of the 1,200 longshoremen will be on unlimited strike this time, but only at the two terminals operated by Termont, Viau and Maisonneuve. Termont had already been the target of a three-day partial strike by longshoremen in early October. 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.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), affiliated to the FTQ, had said it was prepared to postpone its announced strike if the parties reached an agreement by then on the use of a certain type of work schedule, but the union’s offer did not prevent the strike. It is this question of work schedules that has made Termont the target of the new partial and unlimited strike. The CUPE local union claims that Termont has generalized the use of this type of timetable, which is opposed by the longshoremen. The dispute mainly concerns working hours, work-life balance and wages. The union says it is prepared to accept the wage increases granted to longshoremen in Vancouver and Halifax, amounting to 20 per cent over four years. 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.
Earlier this week, the Maritime Employers Association argued that this strike, even if partial, “will quickly lead to major operational upheaval.” The situation in Montreal is bad. The struggle is real and it is only about to get worse. If you are planning to divert your containers away from Montreal, our team in Canada has years of knowledge and experience with all Canadian ports and we can dray, transload and provide crossborder deliveries to and from all Canadian ports. Contact the team at Canada@portxlogistics.com for all your Canadian needs.
Import TEUs are up 2.41% from this week from last week – with most of the volume coming into Long Beach at 22%, Los Angeles 17% and Newark NJ 13.7%. According to an article in JOC, import demand from Asia (which typically starts to slow before Black Friday sales) is holding steady, fueled by resilient retail sales, tariff concerns and the mid-January expiration of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Labor agreement with the U.S. East and Gulf Ports. About 5.4% of the total capacity into the West Coast is forecast as of now to be blanked in November, according to data from maritime intelligence firm eeSea. The figure is about 8.1% on the East Coast. That’s down from the 11.5% blanked capacity observed in November of 2023 for ex-Asia imports into both regions. Peak season demand and vessel load factors have been strong this summer and fall. US imports from Asia in September totaled 1.72 million TEUs, up 16.7% year over year and hovering near a two-year high, according to PIERS.
What’s happening at the ports and rails?:
You can find all the information on the below link where we cover port congestion, chassis issues and capacity lead times weekly at all U.S. and Canada Ports and rail heads on our website – click on the link below
CLICK HERE For Port & Rail Updates
Seattle/Tacoma: The average gate turn times are as follows: 45 minutes for T18, 33 minutes for Washington United Terminal, and 89 minutes for Husky. T18 will be closed on November 8th, 2024. The Ports or Seattle and Tacoma are hot capacity spots for us – if you want to learn how shipping through the SEA/TAC ports can benefit your supply chain and if you are looking for an all-star drayage/transload warehouse team, our Seattle operation has plenty of drayage capacity with the addition of 11 new drivers and a huge amount of warehouse capabilities for ongoing transloading projects. Contact letsgetrolling@portxlogistics.com for capacity and great drayage and warehouse rates.
LA/LGB: On-Dock average rail dwell time still remains high and is slowing down transit from the LA/LGB ports to inland rails. Port of Long Beach dwell times for local imports are starting to go up to 5-9 days, average terminal gate turn time is between 23-70 minutes, depending on the terminal. Additional details can be found here https://polb.com/port-info/import-dwell-report/
If you have hot containers that need to get moving we recommend diverting your hot rail containers to the port for transloading. We have immediate capacity to pull your diverted containers for transload to avoid the rail, capacity is tendered to on a first come first serve basis. Interested in learning how to expedite diverted containers or looking for LA/LGB dray capacity contact letsgetrolling@portxlogistics.com
Denver: There are some container grounding delays at BNSF Hudson and driver wait times are on the rise. I also want to take the time to remind you that we have open drayage capacity to service all Denver ramps as well as a transload warehouse and dry vans for local deliveries, contact Denver@portxlogistics.com for immediate capacity.
Did you know? Port X Logistics is once again a proud gold sponsor for the upcoming TPM 25 event March 2nd – the 5th in Long Beach? We’ll be sharing more exciting details soon, but we’re already looking forward to connecting with all of you and discussing why making drayage a core part of your supply chain solution is the best way to stay ahead and keep operations seamless. Stay tuned!
SONAR Import Data Images
