Bridges to mend and to build

When there is a dispute between a port authority and terminal operator, as there is between PANYNJ and Maher Terminals, one of the leading container terminal operators in the port, and that dispute can’t be settled behind closed doors then you know things have got serious.

Indeed, the complaints filed by Maher Terminals with the Federal Maritime Commission are about as serious as you can get: The port authority “has an unreasonable practice of providing unduly preferential treatment to ocean carriers and ocean-carrier affiliated marine terminals that has and continues to unduly prejudice Maher,” one complaint says.

All in all, with this complaint and others regarding aspects such as handing competing terminals with rate reductions, restricting it from bidding on the Bayonne site and unfairly applying change of ownership charges, Maher is seeking damages “amounting to a sum of millions”.

A sorry state of affairs indeed when measured on the barometer of port authority-terminal operator relationships. The thought springs to mind would things have reached such a stage if an independent Port Regulator had jurisdiction in the port? Such entities are few and far between in the ports sector but clearly such major spats underline the potential for their wider introduction.

But while this dispute may be the subject of most attention regarding the PANYNJ, it is also interesting to note that the authority is seeking to utilise a new fast track permit process to implement a $1bn project to raise the Bayonne Bridge. This has to be done to facilitate the entry of the larger size container vessels that are expected in the port following the opening of the widened Panama Canal. Even if it does achieve fast track permitting, however, the bridge project will not be completed for some time after the new canal system opens for business.

So it seems there are bridges to both build and mend in New York/New Jersey.