99.24% of ILWU union workers in Canada voted to strike at the Canadian ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert in Canada which could happen as early as the 24th of June 2023..
This proposed strike action could negatively impact the US West Coast as around 15% of US trade flows through the Port of Vancouver..
This announcement could not have come at a worse time for the Canadian and US West Coast Ports which have once again ranked at the bottom of the Container Port Productivity Index 2022 compiled by the World Bank and S&P Global Market Intelligence..
The Port of Vancouver was ranked 347 out of 348 while Prince Rupert ranked 342 out of 348 in the Index which provides a comparable assessment of port performance based on the time that vessels spend in ports across 348 ports globally..
The West Coast Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach which ranked 336 and 346 respectively, are once again on the receiving end of shutdown/slow-down of port operations..
The PMA reported on the 12th of June that the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach faced a situation with the ILWU withholding lashers from terminals at the nation’s largest port complex, resulting in vessels having to miss their scheduled departures..
The PMA further reported that “The Union also did not fill orders for labor from several terminal operators despite the fact they were placed properly and on time.”
The ILWU had previously warned that “we are getting there” in terms of the possibility of the labor negotiations breaking down..
As far as regions go, the report indicates that 4 Asian ports, 3 Middle Eastern ports, 2 African ports, and 1 South American port made the top 10 in the list.. Yangshan in China has the no.1 spot while Savannah in the USA has the last spot at 348..
The Mozambican port of Beira was the best performing Southern African port ranked at 223rd while South African ports were among the worst in the continent with the largest South African ports of Durban and Cape Town ranking 341 and 344 out of 348 respectively..
To those who are wondering why some rather small ports are higher up in the rankings than some of the large leading ports, I am quoting Jan Hoffmann of UNCTAD from a LinkedIn post “For ports who are not happy with their ranking, know that effectively it can happen that not all port calls are considered as not all carriers share their data to generate the index.
Also, for the index to compare comparable ports, the index is grouped by port call brackets. This explains why some rather small ports generate a higher index than some of the leading large ports. In absolute terms, the larger ports do move more containers per call, and quicker.”
The third edition of the Container Port Performance Index (CPPI) is a technical study conducted by the World Bank’s Transport Global Practice in partnership with the Global Intelligence & Analytics division of S&P Global Market Intelligence..
The report states that the CPPI is intended to serve as a reference point for improvement for key stakeholders in the global economy, including national governments, port authorities and operators, development agencies, supranational organizations, various maritime interests, and other public and private stakeholders in trade, logistics, and supply chain services..
The foreword of the report states “The performance of a port may be assessed based on a myriad of measurements, such as: terminal capacity or space utilization, cost, landside connectivity & services, or ship to shore interchange. The CPPI is based on available empirical objective data pertaining exclusively to time expended in a vessel stay in a port and should be interpreted as an indicative measure of container port performance, but not a definitive one.”
The eligibility for inclusion in the CPPI for a port is that the port receives at least 24 documented and valid port calls over a year, where port hours can be calculated.. The CPPI 2022 only includes ports that had a minimum of 24 valid port calls within the 12-month period of the study, compared to 20 in earlier iterations, and included 348 ports accounting for 156,813 unique port calls involving 243.9 million container moves..
The CPPI fundamentally relies on the average time spent in port per call, with port hours defined as the entire duration from a ship’s arrival at a port..
‘Total port hours’ is defined as the total time elapsed between when a ship reaches a port (either port limits, pilot station, or anchorage zone, whichever event occurs first) to when it departs from the berth after having completed its cargo exchange.
The purpose of the CPPI is to help identify opportunities to improve a terminal or a port that will ultimately benefit all public and private stakeholders
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