The American Association of Port Authorities and the American Road & Transportation Builders Association will cooperate to increase awareness of the need to significantly boost federal investment in the nation’s ports and waterways infrastructure, they said after signing an agreement Oct. 24 during AAPA’s annual meeting in Mobile, Ala. Each group will participate in the other’s committee meetings and policy discussions, share technical best practices, exchange information through newsletters and reports, and jointly lobby Congress on pending legislation that impacts ports and waterways, they said. "Investing in freight-handling infrastructure is an essential, effective utilization of limited federal resources," said Kurt Nagle, president of AAPA. The ARTBA's new Ports & Waterways Council submitted written testimony in February 2012 to the House Ways and Means Subcommittees on Select Revenue Measures and Oversight calling for increased growth and investment in the nation’s Marine Transportation System. “With growing emphasis on the need to expand the nation’s freight system and calls to double the nation’s exports, the time is right for ARTBA and AAPA to ensure that one of the most vital links in America’s transportation network maintains a strong voice at the policy making table,” said Pierce Homer of Moffatt & Nichol, co-chair of ARTBA’s PWC.

The Department of Homeland Security has made progress in developing a strategy of “resilience,” or the ability of ports and other infrastructure to “resist, absorb, recover from, or adapt to adversity,” but still has a ways to go in implementing and streamlining its efforts, said the Government Accountability Office in a report issued Oct. 25. The report, entitled “Critical Infrastructure Protection: An Implementation Strategy Could Advance DHS’s Coordination of Resilience Efforts across Ports and Other Infrastructure,” follows a GAO investigation consisting of document reviews and interviews with DHS officials, including port visits, that was requested by three Congressmen.¹

The Suez Canal Container Terminal said it completed two successful navigational trials to test port access and turning basins for 15,500 TEU vessels. The trials included the "Eleonora Maersk" with a draft of 14.9 m, and the "Edith Maersk," a 397 meter vessel with a draft of 14.8 meters. "With these two successful trials, SCCT is now open for vessels with a LOA of 397 meters and beam 56.4 meters (22 containers)" said Jan Buijze, SCCT chief operations officer. An expansion project is currently under way to double SCCT's capacity to 5.4 million TEUs, officials said.

The quarter ended Sept. 30 was the strongest for Charleston container volume in four years, with 400,492 20-foot-equivalent units (TEUs) handled, up 13.3 percent over the same period last year, the South Carolina Ports Authority said. Volume for the calendar year to date in TEUs was up 9.4 percent, it said. For September, container volume in the Port of Charleston reached 131,686 TEUs, up 5.3 percent over a year ago. Breakbulk volume for the quarter was the highest in more than two decades, with 302,611 pier tons handled from July through September, it said.

The contracting phase of the Port of Miami project to deepen its channel to minus 50 feet has begun with the solicitation of bids by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, it said. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2013 and be completed in time for the opening of the expanded Panama Canal in early 2015.

Import cargo volume at U.S. ports is expected to increase 9.9 percent in October as merchants finish importing holiday merchandise, said the monthly Global Port Tracker report by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates. U.S. ports followed by Global Port Tracker handled 1.42 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEU) in August, the latest month for which after-the-fact numbers are available, up 6.7 percent from July and 3.3 percent from August 2011, it said. It estimated September at 1.49 million TEU, up 8 percent from last year, and October is forecast at 1.45 million TEU, up 9.9 percent. Since most holiday merchandise will be in distribution centers by the end of October, monthly cargo volume will drop off for the remainder of the year but will remain above 2011 levels, the report said. November is forecast at 1.32 million TEU, up 2.4 percent from last year, and December is forecast at 1.28 million TEU, up 4.6 percent. After the holidays, January 2013 is forecast to stay at 1.28 million TEU, down one-half of 1 percent from January 2012, and February is forecast at 1.19 million TEU, up 9 percent from a year earlier.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Sustainable Terminal Services,Inc. are each investing $808,875 to bring Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology to the port, they said. Additional funds will be provided through a federal grant, they said. RFID will allow the Port Authority and its terminal operators to clearly identify each vehicle serving the port facilities, and to know the content of containers coming to and from the port and the identities and backgrounds of the people transporting and handling the cargo, they said.

Khalifa Port in Abu Dhabi launched commercial operations with Navis' advanced terminal operating system SPARCS N4, the company said. The technology was already operational at the Abu Dhabi Terminal-operated Mina Zayed.

The JadeWeserPort in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, opened to jumbo container ships this month, officials said. Over $1 billion was invested in the project, which will ensure Germany's handling of jumbo container ships well into the future, they said.

Energy-efficiency, ballast water management and ship-recycling rules will be key issues for the International Maritime Organization's Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting Oct. 1-5 at IMO Headquarters in London, it said.