The South Carolina State Ports Authority approved $146.9 million in capital spending during its fiscal year beginning July 1 and forecast Charleston's container volume will rise 8 percent during the next 12 months.

The port authority's capital spending plan would be the largest in the agency's 70-year history. It includes major investments such as construction of the new Navy Base Terminal and upgrades to facility infrastructure and information systems.  Both houses of the South Carolina Legislature have approved a $180 million allocation for the port, and a budget conference committee is considering an additional $120 million to deepen port channels in preparation for larger Panama Canal locks.  The port authority's budget for the next fiscal year projects a 6 percent increase in breakbulk and non-containerized cargo at South Carolina's public seaports.  The port authority has completed a $23 million upgrade of Charleston's Columbus Street Terminal for handling roll-on/roll-off, breakbulk and project cargoes. The terminal handles cargoes such as BMW vehicle exports as well as heavy-lift moves for the power generation industry.  During the first 11 months of the current fiscal year, containerized volume at Charleston was up 3.4 percent while non-containerized cargo at Charleston and Georgetown jumped 43.1 percent. Container volume in May rose nearly 10 percent year-over-year to 132,498 twenty-foot-equivalent units.

ILWU Files Suit in Portland Dispute - 

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union elevated its battle with the electrical workers' union and terminal operator ICTSI Oregon a notch by filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oregon.  The ILWU joined the Pacific Maritime Association, the employers' group on the West Coast, in seeking a temporary restraining order and injunction prohibiting ICTSI from hiring members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers to handle refrigerated containers at the Port of Portland's Terminal 6.  The National Labor Relations Board's regional director last weekend filed an unfair labor practices charge against the ILWU, charging the union over the past two weeks has slowed operations at the port to force ICTSI, which operates Terminal 6, to cease using IBEW workers.  The NLRB scheduled a hearing for Aug. 14, which could clear the way for a temporary restraining order and possibly an injunction against the dockworkers union.  The ILWU-PMA lawsuit in U.S. District Court pits the dockworkers union and their employers group against the Port of Portland and ICTSI over enforcement of the coastwide Pacific Coast Longshore and Clerks Agreement, the master contract between the PMA and ILWU covering all West Coast ports.  The dispute is unusually complex because it is playing out on several tracks and involves charges and countercharges by both parties. 

Report Shows Railroads Gained Market Share Last Year -

The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) recently released the 23rd annual "State of Logistics Report", which shows that total U.S. business logistics costs in 2011 rose 6.6 percent to $1.28 trillion compared with 2010.  Authored by transportation consultant Rosalyn Wilson of Delcan Inc. and sponsored by Penske Logistics, the report tracks and measures costs associated with moving freight through the U.S. supply chain.  The 2011 report states that, based on an overall 15.3 percent year-over-year revenue gain, railroads gained market share last year, especially in intermodal, and did not experience the capacity problems faced by truckers.   Trucking firms also are using intermodal rail to help offset the impacts of driver shortages and the costs of acquiring and maintaining new equipment, according to the report.  Overall, intermodal volume has recovered 84 percent of its 2006 volume, "clearly demonstrating that intermodal is the growth sector in freight transportation," CSCMP officials said in a report summary.   The report also states that with respect to capacity, railroads are in very good shape from an infrastructure, equipment and personnel basis.  In addition, rail rates generally have risen significantly and at a much faster rate than inflation, the report concludes.

For-Hire Truck Tonnage Slips 0.7% in May -

For-hire truck tonnage fell 0.7 percent in May from April but grew at a slightly brisker pace on a year-over-year basis, 4.1 percent, reflecting a slowing, not stalling, of economic growth.  The month-to-month drop was the second in a row, as tonnage dipped 1.1 percent in April from March and rose 3.5 percent year-over-year. In the first five months of 2012, the American Trucking Associations For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index was 3.8 percent higher than in the same period a year ago.  "The good news is that the decrease in fuel prices will help support retail sales going forward, which is a big part of truck tonnage," ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello.  In addition to U.S. corporations holding onto cash instead of hiring or buying new equipment, he is also concerned that the European debt crisis and "the so-called U.S. fiscal cliff" could dampen truck volume. Costello expects tonnage growth between 3 percent and 3.9 percent this year.

Long Beach Container Volumes Down in May - 

Container volumes at the Port of Long Beach declined 7.23 percent in May compared to May 2011, with imports dropping 9.15 percent and exports down 0.83 percent.  On a month-to-month basis, however, May was the busiest month of the year so far for imports, indicating that containerized imports should continue to increase as the Asia-U.S. trade builds toward the peak shipping season.  The Port of Los Angeles earlier Thursday released its May container volumes. Imports increased 2.7 percent and exports in Los Angeles increased 0.45 percent compared to May 2011.  Long Beach continues to feel the effects of losing Hyundai Merchant Marine in late 2010. Hyundai and its terminal operator, California United Terminals, moved from Long Beach to Los Angeles.  Containerized exports in Long Beach were down only slightly in May. Exports peaked in March, which is always one of the busiest months of the year in the U.S. export trade to Asia. Exports are expected to remain somewhat slow during the summer months, but they should pick up with the autumn harvest and continue to increase through the winter months.