Import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to rise 8 percent this month over the same time last year as West Coast ports continue to recover from a backlog of cargo that built up before a tentative new labor agreement was signed, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

CaroTrans, a global non-vessel operating common carrier and ocean freight consolidator, has launched an all-water, less-than-containerload import service form Shanghai to Atlanta, via the Port of Savannah, Ga.

More than 4,400 ships bring nearly $400bn worth of goods through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach every year, a crucial link in the global supply chain of factories, warehouses, docks, highways and rail lines. Most blue-collar workers along the chain have seen their wages slashed with the quick rise of global trade. But the longshoremen who move the goods the shortest distance, between ship and shore, have shrewdly protected pay that trumps that of many white-collar managers.

If we're to believe the big container lines, ever-larger ships are the remedy for their financial woes. Why, then, are so many of them still losing money?

Assuming that the rank and file of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) ratifies the new five-year contract negotiated with terminal operators, West Coast ports can finally focus on getting container-handling operations back to normal. So is everyone happy?