U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker has appointed three senior port executives from the ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles and New York & New Jersey to the Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness.

The Jacksonville Port Authority’s newly completed Intermodal Container Transfer Facility (ICTF) at Dames Point is supporting a large military training exercise this month in advance of its official opening to commercial traffic later this year.  The Port of New Orleans’ Mississippi River Intermodal Terminal was dedicated April 12 in a ceremony hosted by the port’s board of commissioners. With an annual throughput capacity of 160,000 TEUs, the terminal will facilitate the transfer of containers between the port and its six Class I rail partners. The Northwest Seaport Alliance’s managing members have approved $141 million worth of construction and cranes to accommodate the simultaneous docking of two ultra-large containerships at Husky Terminal in the South Harbor area of Tacoma.

A new direct all-water container service between the U.S Gulf and Asia jointly operated by Maersk Line and Mediterranean Shipping Company will be calling the Port of Houston beginning next month. The Port of Oshawa greeted its first international vessel of the 2016 season on April 13 at a special Top Hat ceremony. M/V Wigeon, a 37,238 dwt bulk carrier registered in Liberia, arrived at the Lake Ontario port from Portugal carrying more than 20,000 metric tons of steel rebar.

Container throughput January through March at the Port of Los Angeles exceeded 2.0 million TEUs, an 11.3 percent increase from last year and the port's busiest first quarter ever.  The Port of Oakland reports a nearly 20 percent increase in container exports for first quarter 2016.  March exports measured in TEUs rose for a third successive month, up 9.9 percent compared to March 2015. The Port of Virginia in March processed 46,600 rail containers, a monthly record that accounted for 39 percent of the port’s total container volume.

The Port of Los Angeles is seeking to develop future generations of maritime and port leaders through a newly launched Fellows Program for graduate students.

The port authorities of Montreal and Antwerp renewed their three-year old cooperative agreement on April 13 during a joint trade mission in Montreal.

Nordic Logistics and Warehousing celebrated the doubling of capacity at its Savannah location with a ribbon cutting April 15 for a 200,000-square-foot cold storage and blast freezing facility. Located just six miles from the Georgia Ports Authority’s Garden City Container Terminal, it will handle both refrigerated and frozen cargo.

The port authority announced April 11 that a comprehensive review will be undertaken of the Port of New York and New Jersey covering more than 3,000 acres of cargo facilities in order to better evaluate and plan for future growth, improve operations and enhance revenue and job creation opportunities.

The Port of Vancouver’s 2016 cruise season officially kicked off April 4 with the arrival of the Star Princess at Canada Place. This year, the port authority expects to welcome approximately 830,000 passengers on 228 calls, a 3.0 percent increase in passenger volume compared to 2015.

The Port of Long Beach is launching a new program offering its tenants rebates to encourage them to replace outdated, polluting and inefficient electrical equipment with energy-efficient technology.