Hapang-Lloyd halts scheduling stops at Terminal 6.
BY JACOB PALMER | DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Hapang-Lloyd, Port of Portland’s next biggest client behind already-departed Hanjin, has halted scheduling stops at Terminal 6.
The company has not made an official announcement, but the CEO of ICTSI Oregon, the company in charge of operating the port, told the Oregonian that the company’s schedule shows no stops in Portland.
From OregonLive.com:
If Hapag-Lloyd is indeed gone, the blow will be devastating to small and midsized companies who trade with Europe. The German carrier is Portland’s direct connection to those customers.
Hanjin Shipping Co. pulled out of Portland in February, taking nearly 80 percent of the Port of Portland’s container business with it. About nine months of slow dock work during West Coast-wide contract negotiations between port operators and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union brought West Coast ports to a near standstill. Even as the union announced Friday that its members plan to ratify a new contract, and the backlog of ships at other ports is expected to clear out soon, Portland’s labor dispute continues.
ICTSI CEO Elvis Ganda contends the longshoreman union is purposefully sabotaging the company, while workers have accused the Philippines-based ICTSI of mismanaging the port.
Associated Press reports:
Agriculture industry officials have expressed concern that shipping goods from Puget Sound will become more expensive without Portland competing for the same business.
Hapag-Lloyd represented about 20 percent of Portland’s container business, but more than 90 percent of the Port of Lewiston’s, upriver in Idaho. Pea and lentil farmers in Idaho ship their product up the Columbia Snake River channel to the Port of Portland throughout the year, except for the yearly lock maintenance.
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