b'2American Journal ofTransportation ajot.comPort of New York/New Jersey challenged by west-to-east cargo diversions NEW YORK New empty container fee motivates carriers to evacuate excess boxes clogging port. By Peter Buxbaum, AJOT to the idea of evacuat- PORTS 2022East Coast ports have been gain- and receptive ing cargo volumes at the expense ofing empty containers.West Coast ports for nearly two yearsUnder the original container man-andthePortofNew YorkandNewagement scheme, announced August 1, Jersey has benefitted from that trend.the ocean carriers total outgoing con-The ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach,tainer volume, loaded and empty, would Oakland, and Tacoma all lost volumehave had to equal or exceed 110% of duringthefivemonthsfromApriltheir incoming container volume during through August 2022 as compared tothe same period, or be assessed $100 per May through September 2021, accord- container. The program has since been ingtofiguressuppliedbyDescartestweaked to tailor goals and fees to indi-Datamyne. New York/New Jersey, byvidual ocean carriers based on their his-contrast, was over 10% ahead of thetorical imbalances. pace set in 2021 during that period andIf a carrier falls short of its goal, saw an increase in volumes of 18.5%said Rooney, a fee will be imposed, during calendar year 2021. and then that shortage, plus the goal FiguresfromthePort Authorityfor the next quarter, get carried to the of New York and New Jersey showfollowing period. that 70% of the cargo increases at theSince the program calculates fees port this year, through July, have been(CARGOcontinued on page 8)cargothathasbeendivertedfrom West Coast ports. The question going forward is whether the trend is sus-tainable, or whether these cargo shifts represent tactical moves by shippers and carriers in the face of congestion and labor problems in the West.The cargo increases havent been all good news for NY/NJ. The Des-cartesDatamynefiguresshowthat between June and August of this year, the port saw increases in vessel wait times from 13.7 to 14.6 days, while Los Angeles and Long Beach, already withmuchshorterwaittimes,saw decreases during the same period. NY/NJs delays decreased to 13.6 days in September, but LAs was down to 6.9 days and Long Beachs down to 5.0. E astM EEtsW Est B acklogTheportsproblemsrequired some action that went beyond the coor-dinationandcollaborationafforded by the Council on Port Performance.Red Hook Terminals is leading (See story on page 4) Since mid-Feb-ruary, the Port Authority and all of itsthe way for a sustainable future in terminal operators have been meeting on a weekly basis, under a discussionthe Port of NY&NJ with our agreement authorized by the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), to talkSouth Brooklyn Offshore Wind about capacity and fluidity. While we are a landlord port,port development SBMT, zero saidBethannRooney,thenewport commercedirector,ithasbecomeemission terminal equipment, veryimportantthatwearenotjust collecting rent. We need to be cogni- cross harbor barge services and zant of the entire supply chain, and all of the stakeholders that are working in and dependent upon the port.other industry leading initiatives.Oneoftheissuesthatcameto lightduringthosediscussionswas theaccumulationofemptycontain-ers at port facilities. Its a problem that became apparent during the firstLeading The Wayfour or five months of this year, said Rooney. If we didnt get on top of this, we were going to find ourselves in a position where we would have a lot more ships in anchorage. As of late August, 13 vessels were at anchor in waters near the port.Unfortunately,talkingalonedid notmotivatecarrierstotakeaction to rid the port of the excess of empty containers. They required some addi-tional motivation, and that came in thewww.RedHookTerminals.comform of a new empty container fee. The moment we put that struc-tureinplace,saidRooney,they became highly motivated. The carriers have been extraordinarily responsive Redhook Terminals - NYNJ 2021 -V8.indd 1 8/17/21 11:05 AM'