WASHINGTON: West Coast ports Monday were having no problems handling their workload, despite the pending closure of most terminals on Tuesday and Wednesday, because the anticipated pre-holiday cargo spike did not materialize. “We expected heavy volume today, but we didn’t get it,” said Ed DeNike, chief operating officer at SSA Marine, which operates terminals in Seattle, Oakland and Long Beach.
Schedules vary from terminal to terminal, but many operators informed beneficial cargo owners and truckers they would offer night gates on Monday in preparation for the July 4 holiday and the July 5 commemoration of the founding of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union that is held every year. “With the announced closures, the terminals highly recommend truckers utilize the night gates offered Monday,” the Port of Oakland stated. July 4 is an optional work day, although many terminals close at least their yard and gate operations for the holiday. West Coast ports shut down completely on July 5 because the ILWU Bloody Thursday commemoration is a no-work day in the West Coast waterfront contract. This year the ports are also contending with last Tuesday’s cyberattack that struck Maersk Line’s operations around the world, as well as those of its sister company APM Terminals. The impact on West Coast operations was mixed. The massive APM Pier 400 terminal in Los Angeles was closed much of last week, and reopened Friday evening for limited operations. A vessel operated by Mediterranean Shipping Co. that had been scheduled to call at Pier 400 was diverted to the Pier T facility in Long Beach. Maersk ships in the Pacific Northwest call at a terminal operated by SSA, and in Northern California Maersk vessels call at SSA’s Oakland International Container Terminal. DeNike said Maersk was transmitting shipping information to the terminals manually or via email, and operations were running smoothly. APM’s terminal in Tacoma does not handle Maersk vessels, but rather Matson Navigation Co. vessels operated in the US domestic trades, where vessels are not as large as those in the trans-Pacific.
Despite the two-day closures and the residuals of the Maersk cyberattack, no significant congestion problems were reported at West Coast ports onMonday. “Gate traffic was not too heavy,” said Port of Oakland spokesman Mike Zampa. West Coast ports have been relatively free of congestion despite relatively strong container volumes so far this year. Total laden containers increased 5 percent in January through May, and imports were up 5.3 percent, according to numbers published on the website of the Pacific Maritime Association. Imports are expected to begin building soon for the annual peak-shipping.
