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Busiest Container Port News

09 Apr 2026

US Grants $70M to Port of Los Angeles for Maintenance Projects

(Credit: Port of Los Angeles)

The Port of Los Angeles said it has secured about $70 million in federal funding for harbor maintenance and infrastructure upgrades, marking its largest allocation to date.The funding, provided by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, will support projects including dredging, seismic upgrades and navigational safety improvements.The San Pedro Bay port complex, which includes Los Angeles and Long Beach, received a combined $131.8 million allocation.The trust fund is financed through a cargo tax paid by U.S.

26 Nov 2025

New Global Benchmark Ranks Top Container Ports Worldwide

Leading Container Ports of the World (LCP) report cover image. © DNV

Maritime transport carries close to 90 percent of global trade by volume, and container ports alone handle more than 80 percent of non-bulk merchandise. Today, these ports are undergoing a profound transformation, driven by rising trade flows, rapid advances in technology, and mounting pressure to meet climate targets.Against this backdrop, DNV and Menon Economics have introduced the industry’s first global container port ranking. The LCP report benchmarks 160 ports against 35 indicators grouped into five pillars: enablers…

17 Apr 2025

Arc Expands Into the Commercial Sector With Electric Tugboat Retrofit

Arc Boat Company announced its entrance into the commercial sector. In partnership with a West Coast shipyard, Diversified Marine, Inc., Arc will retrofit a 26 ft tugboat for use in the Port of Los Angeles. The Port of Los Angeles is racing to be zero-emission by 2030, and yet is populated with antiquated tugboats that are expensive, inefficient, and highly polluting. With the first of many modern vessels that are more capable, cleaner, and built domestically, this workboat is a first step towards modernizing the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere.In recognition of the importance of shipbuilding, the U.S. government has announced a flurry of new incentives to revive domestic capacity…

03 Jun 2024

Red Sea Diversions, Tariff Risks Send Ocean Shipping Soaring

© yaniv / Adobe Stock

Spiking ocean shipping rates, vessel backups at seaports and empty container shortages - issues that wreaked havoc on global trade during the COVID pandemic supply-chain crisis - are back as the industry enters its busy season."There is a cocktail of uncertainty and disruption across global ocean freight supply chains," said Peter Sand, chief analyst at pricing platform Xeneta."It is the speed and magnitude of this recent (rate) spike that has taken the market by surprise," he said.On Friday…

03 Jan 2024

Jonathan Daniels to Lead Port of Baltimore

Jonathan Daniels (Photo: Maryland Department of Transportation)

Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld has announced Jonathan Daniels as the new executive director of the Maryland Department of Transportation’s Maryland Port Administration. Daniels comes to Maryland after serving as chief executive officer and director at Port Everglades in Broward County, Fla., and has more than 30 years of port and economic development experience.Daniels will begin in his new position February 5, taking over from Brian Miller, who has been serving…

24 Mar 2023

Maersk Teams Up with Shanghai Port on Green Methanol Shipping Fuel

(Image: A.P. Moller - Maersk)

Maersk and Shanghai International Port Group have signed a memorandum of understanding for a green methanol marine fuel project in the Shanghai port, the shipping group said on Friday.Maersk plans to put 19 vessels capable of running on e-methanol between 2023 and 2025 as part of its net-zero emissions target by 2040.Shanghai International Port Group, the operator of the world's busiest container port, said it aims to become one of the worlds first commercial green methanol refueling points and a regional green methanol fuel bunkering center.(Photo: A.P.

28 Dec 2022

Port of New York and New Jersey Remains US' Top Container Port

© rabbit75_fot / Adobe Stock

The Port of New York and New Jersey has held onto the title as the United States’ busiest container port for a fourth consecutive month.In recent months, U.S. East Coast ports have reported elevated container volumes as trade diverts from the U.S. West Coast where shippers have been hindered by labor disputes and logistics bottlenecks.The Port of New York and New Jersey, which surpassed the Port Los Angeles as the nation’s busiest in August, said it moved 723,069 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units) in November 2022…

22 Aug 2022

What Impact Will Strike at Britain's Busiest Container Port Have?

© Rob / Adobe Stock

More than 1,900 workers at Britain's biggest container port, Felixstowe, have begun eight days of strike action that will cause disruption to trade and supply chains.The staff at Felixstowe, on the east coast of England, are taking industrial action in a dispute over pay, becoming the latest workers to strike in Britain as unions demand higher wages for members facing a cost-of-living crisis. read moreBelow is a look at Felixstowe's operations and the possible impact from the strike:How big is the port?About 48% of all containers brought into the UK are transported through the Felixstowe port…

22 Aug 2022

ABB, Keppel O&M Verify Next-level of Harbor Tug Autonomy with Collision Avoidance Trials

The Maju 510 tug performing autonomous navigation - Image credit ABB

ABB said Monday its digital technologies have enabled the harbor tug Maju 510 to become the first vessel in the world to receive Autonomous and Remote-Control Navigation Notation from ABS classification society, and first Singapore-flagged vessel to receive the Smart (Autonomous) Notation from MPA. The notations acknowledge the breakthrough performance of the tug, demonstrating autonomous collision avoidance capabilities in trials conducted at Raffles Reserved Anchorage, off Singapore Island…

09 Jul 2021

South Korea's Container Squeeze Throws Exporters into Costly Gridlock

© Mariusz / Adobe Stock

Unable to get a slot on a container vessel, Lee Sang-hoon is considering using fishing trawlers docked for repair in the South Korean port of Busan to meet surging export orders for the car engine oil he sells to Russia."China is the black hole in this shipping crisis, all the carriers are headed there," said Lee, owner of Dongkwang International Co. in Busan which makes about 20 billion won ($17.60 million) in annual revenue."Those fishing boats out there could be an answer for us because we're already one month behind schedule.

07 Dec 2020

Port of Los Angeles Inks $6.8 Mln Cybersecurity Deal with IBM

© trekandphoto / Adobe Stock

The Port of Los Angeles is working with IBM to design and operate a Port Cyber Resilience Center (CRC) at the U.S.' busiest container port.A $6.8 million, three-year agreement between the seaport and tech giant includes hardware, software and services to design, install, operate and maintain the first-of-its-kind system aimed at detecting and protecting against malicious cyber incidents potentially impacting cargo flow as well as improving the quality, quantity and speed of cyber…

09 Sep 2020

Port of Long Beach Reports Best August on Record

(Photo: Port of Long Beach)

A strong start to the peak shipping season led the U.S.' second busiest container port to record its best August in its 109-year history.Dockworkers and terminal operators at the Port of Long Beach moved 725,610 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of container cargo last month, a 9.3% increase compared to August 2019, the port announced Wednesday. Imports rose 13% to 364,792 TEUs and exports were up 1% to 126,177 TEUs. Empty containers shipped overseas climbed 8.5% to 234,642 TEUs.The boost comes at the start of the peak shipping season…

19 Mar 2020

AAPA Elects Cordero as Board Chairman

Mario Cordero (Photo: AAPA)

The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) has elected Mario Cordero, executive director of California’s Port of Long Beach, to serve as the association’s next Chairman of the Board.Cordero will be installed as Chairman on the final day of AAPA’s 2020 Annual Convention, set for September 13-16, in Québec City, QC, Canada. He will assume the AAPA chairmanship from Gary G. Nelson, executive director of Washington State’s Port of Grays Harbor, who began his term on October 15…

30 Aug 2019

Long Beach Port Gets Federal Grant

The  U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has given the Port of Long Beach $4.8 million to improve cyber-security.According to a press release from the second-busiest container port in the United States, FEMA Port Security Grant financing was announced earlier this month and will pay to upgrade the Port’s cameras and sensors, and continue its investment in fiber and wireless networks.“Securing the Port requires state-of-the-art technology to monitor activities on land, on the water and below the water,” said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero.“This grant will help us enhance our domain awareness and maintain our readiness to protect the harbor…

07 Aug 2019

HDR to Lead $870M Rail Project at PoLB

Photo: HDR

The Port of Long Beach, one of the greenest ports in the world, has selected HDR to perform the final design as it moves ahead with its $870 million effort to streamline rail operations and reduce bottlenecks at the second-busiest container port in the U.S.The Pier B On-Dock Rail Support Facility Project will expand the port’s capability for loading shipping containers directly on rail cars instead of being loaded on trucks for short-haul trips. The expansion and reconfiguration of the existing Pier B railyard will create a staging area for loading freight trains nearly 2 miles long…

02 Aug 2019

PoLB Receives Cleanest Ship to Visit U.S.

Mediterranean Shipping Company’s MSC Jewel, the cleanest container ship to visit the United States, has stopped by the Port of Long Beach (PoLB).According to a release from the second-busiest container port in the United States, after the Port of Los Angeles, which it adjoins, MSC Jewel arrived at Total Terminals International’s Pier T facility on July 12.The ship, 1,200 feet long with a capacity of 14,436 twenty-foot equivalent units, was built in 2019 and is powered by Tier III diesel engines (main propulsion and auxiliary power), which are 75% cleaner than the Tier II standard set by the International Maritime Organization.“Tier III ships just started entering the global fleet.

16 May 2019

AAL Delivers Four New Cranes for Felixstowe

The global ocean transport operator AAL Shipping has successfully delivered a cargo of four rubber-tired gantry cranes (RTGs) to the Port of Felixstowe, as part of a development project that will see the UK’s busiest container port add an additional 18,000 teu of container storage capacity to meet growing demand.The ZPMC Chinese-made RTGs were loaded in Shanghai and shipped to Felixstowe aboard the 31,000 dwt mega-size mpv the A-Class AAL Kobe, for the CPIA forwarding and shipping agency. Each of the units measured 32 m x 14 m x 30 m and weighed just under 200 t.The new remote controlled RTGs will serve Berths 8 and 9 at the Port and…

23 Apr 2019

Singapore Mega Port on Track for 2021

Singapore on Tuesday said its plans to build the world's biggest container terminal in a single location were on track, as it held a ceremony to mark a milestone in the initial construction phase of the mega-project.Tuas Terminal is set to open progressively from 2021, six years after work began, and it is expected to be capable of handling 65 million twenty-foot long shipping containers per annum when fully completed in 2040.Once completed, the terminal is slated to become the world's largest container terminal in a single location, said Quah Ley Hoon, chief executive of the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore."This will strengthen our Global Hub Port status…

07 Mar 2019

German Ports Sign-Up to Arctic Commitment

The ports of Bremen and Bremerhaven, Germany, have joined an ambitious campaign to a ban on heavy fuel oil (HFO) from Arctic shipping – along with more than 80 companies, organisations, politicians, NGOs and explorers.Bremenports GmbH & Co. KG, operates the twin ports Bremen and Bremerhaven, which rank as the fourth busiest container port in Europe, and the world’s 16th biggest.“Bremenports is proud to sign up to the Arctic Commitment. Heavy fuel oil has no place in Arctic shipping. We are calling on other ports to join us on calling on the IMO to enact a ban on its use in Arctic waters”, said Robert Howe, CEO of Bremenports GmbH & Co. KG.“Sustainability is a central element in bremenport’s strategy”, continued Howe.

16 Jan 2019

PORTS: Busiest U.S. Port Set Cargo Records

© ake1150/AdobeStock

The Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Wednesday said they set all-time records for moving cargo in 2018, after U.S. retailers and manufacturers pulled forward imports to avoid higher tariffs on Chinese goods.The Port of Los Angeles, North America's busiest container port, handled 9.46 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) last year, the most in its 111-year history and 1.2 percent more than in 2017.The neighboring Port of Long Beach processed more than 8 million TEUs for the first time last year…

06 Apr 2018

APM Terminals Mumbai Handles Record Volumes

APM Terminals Mumbai, India handled a record 2.3 million TEUs during its 2017-2018 financial year. This is the terminal’s highest volume since the terminal was built in 2006. The terminal received over 633 vessels over the course of the year. The terminal is no stranger to records. In financial year 2014-2015 the terminal already created the Indian National Maritime Record handling 2.01 million TEUs, approximately 20% of India's containerized cargo. Commenting on the achievement, Ravi Gaitonde, Managing Director of APM Terminals Mumbai said, “This success is a result of the cooperation extended by the entire trade community including the cargo owners, Container Freight Station operators, transporters, rail operators and the port and customs authorities.

01 Mar 2018

DP World, Panama to Strengthen Ties

Trade infrastructure development to diversify Panama’s economy and DP World’s international experience in over 40 countries were at the centre of discussions held in Dubai yesterday between the global trade enabler’s Group Chairman and CEO Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem and Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela. As part of his visit, Mr. Varela was taken on a tour of DP World’s flagship Jebel Ali Port and Free Zone, including Terminal 3, which is among the world’s most productive and technologically advanced, employing surveillance drones and remote-controlled quay cranes that are operated from the safety and comfort of a control room. A presentation was also delivered on the role that DP World plays in enabling customers to manage the complexities and cut costs in the global supply chain…

01 Jan 2018

Shanghai Port Sets New World Record

The annual handling capacity of Shanghai Port surpassed 40 million TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), breaking an existing world record, the Chinese state media reported. Xinhua quoted the Shanghai International Port Group saying that Shanghai Port started container transportation in 1978 with a handling capacity of 7,951 TEUs that year. As one of China's largest ports, its  throughput exceeded 30 million TEUs in 2011. In December 2017, Shanghai Yangshan Deep Water Port, the world's biggest automated container terminal, started trial operations. The project uses automated handling equipment designed and manufactured in China, as well as a domestically developed automated management system.