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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 shipping lines, Hapag-Lloyd (Germany), Orient Overseas Container Line (Hong Kong) and NYK Line (Japan), and associated carrier ZIM Integrated Shipping (Israel).
More in the Business Examiner
Virginia International Terminals Inc., the port's current operator, pledges to increase container volumes by an average of 6.5 percent over the next five years.
The proposals would vie against an unsolicited offer from APM Terminals Inc. that was announced three months ago.
The offer from The Carlyle Group, a Washington-based private-equity firm, involves making an upfront payment of $250 million to $300 million.
RREEF, a real estate investment arm of Deutsche Bank, is proposing an upfront payment of $400 million.
From the Times Dispatch
From the Maritime Union of New Zealand:
Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Joe FleetwoodThe Maritime Union says a new members bill that will increase the transparency and accountability of publicly owned New Zealand ports is a positive move and has wide support.
Maritime Union of New Zealand General Secretary Joe Fleetwood says the Union congratulates Labour MP Darien Fenton whose Local Government (Council-Controlled Organisations) Amendment Bill has been drawn from the ballot.
He says the bill addresses the pressing need to change the law to bring publicly owned ports into line with other public assets, which are covered by the Official Information Act.
The new bill would also mean that ports would be required to act as a good employer, and exhibit social and environmental responsibility in their communities.
The Maritime Union wrote to the Auckland Council requesting some accountability for the actions of Ports of Auckland Limited management and the costs incurred to the people of Auckland.
More at the Maritime Union of New Zealand
The Obama administration on Friday made $473 million in funding originally allocated to earmark projects available to states.
The money was set aside for appropriations between fiscal 2003 and 2006, but the dollars weren’t spent because of Obama’s and Congress’s ban on earmarks. States must identify by Oct. 1 the projects — which can range from highway construction to port enhancements — for which they would use the funds.
More at the Journal of Commerce
The following excerpts are from a column by the Oregonian’s Steve Duin:
You can’t say the Port of Portland isn’t accommodating. Neighborly. Generous to a fault.
When the work slowdown at Terminal 6 put the screws to ICTSI Oregon, Bill Wyatt, the Port’s executive director, stepped up and voluntarily agreed to reimburse the Philippines-based company $4.7 million to ease its pain.
That generosity sparked a federal lawsuit by the longshoremen’s union, which suggested the “giveaway” was akin to bribery and stacking the deck against labor. But Wyatt is resolute.
He remembers the problems at T6 in the 38 years the Port managed the container terminal — “In a really good year, we almost broke even” — and he wants ICTSI to hang around for awhile, its 25-year lease to operate the terminal notwithstanding.
Accommodating? That’s positively magnanimous.
Read the rest here
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