MANILA's International Container Terminal Services Inc's (ICTSI), troubled venture in Portland, Oregon, faces more difficulties as its big customer, Hanjin Shipping, said it wants to leave the port for either Tacoma or Seattle.

Portland has been plagued with labour problems, resulting in on-again off-again work slowdowns, which came from conflicting undertakings given to two unions over which union would supply reefer box monitors.

The Portland Port Authority contracted the work to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, while the employers' Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) had guaranteed all waterfront work to the ILWU.

Korea's Hanjin Shipping has been calling at Portland since 1994 and also at member of the CKYH alliance which links it with Cosco, "K" Line and Yang Ming, which together account for 80 per cent of the port's box volume.

The departure is expected to hurt big importers such as Fred Meyer and Columbia Sportswear, as well as exporters, who will now have to pay more to truck containers to the Port of Seattle.

Hanjin's departure will also take US$250,000 a week in docker wages at Terminal 6 with ICTSI and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) trading barbs over which was to blame.

Hanjin is itself troubled, having reported a net loss of US$72.3 million in the second quarter and a net loss of $32 million in the first quarter. It needs to cut costs.

ICTSI troubles stem from the fact that it was obliged to uphold its contract with the port, and even though it did not sign the PMA-ILWU collective agreement, it had undertaken to adhere to it, even though it did not know that contradictory provisions lurked in the port contract it is also sworn to uphold.

The lack of dispute resolution after the US National Labour Relations Board (NLRB) ruled against the ILWU, led to wildcat waterfront go-slows on the part of the longshoremen, and ever-lengthening dwell times for trucks at the gates of the port.