Terminal 6 at the Port of Portland, pictured here in April of 2013, lost 95 percent of its container business in April 2015.
Port of Portland
The last of Portland's anemic container service will end Saturday.
Westwood Shipping announced in a letter to its customers this week that the company will no long call on the Port of Portland’s Terminal 6.
The Puyallup, Washington-based shipping company was making monthly calls, which the firm said were not economically viable any longer.
Each call to the port moved about 150 containers of hay, paper products and dried fruit to Japan. ICTSI Oregon, the company that operates the container terminal, said Wednesday they were not aware of Westwood’s plans.
“While we are disappointed with this news, we also understand the underlying economics of the carrier industry are at play like over-capacity and exceptionally low rates,” the port said in a statement. “We are hopeful that Westwood will return to T-6 when market dynamics improve.”
Portland lost more than 95 percent of its container service in March 2015 when South Korean-based Hanjin and German-based Hapag-Lloyd pulled out.
The carriers complained it was taking too long to load and unload ships because of a nearly three-year, local labor dispute between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and ICTSI Oregon, the company that employs them.