The Marino Group's Marine Repair Services - Container Maintenance Corporation (MRS-CMC), a leading provider of intermodal services, announces the addition of a third load lift to its newly launched state-of-the-art Port Houston depot as it works to enhance its popular container storage solution. This additional equipment will improve efficiency for its customers, which is especially important as the market prepares for Port Houston’s Sustained Import Dwell Fee to take effect on February 1.

Port Houston's new dwell fee structure was designed to reduce long-term container storage and promote cargo movement fluidity at both the Barbours Cut and Bayport Container terminals. After the eighth dwell day, a $45/day fee will be assessed, which must be paid prior to the release of a long-dwelled container. This new fee structure has put the market under pressure to commit to a fluid supply chain and enhanced performance.

"Our brand-new Port Houston depot, located directly across from the Bayport Terminal and only a few minutes away from the Barbours Cut terminal, provides a highly efficient container storage solution that relieves terminal congestion and helps our customers avoid dwell fees, which are about to be increased. We invested in a third load lift to ensure that we could meet the needs of our customers and the market,” said David Miller, Director, MRS-CMC, Southwest & Mid-South Operations.

While new, expanded depot was launched in August 2022, MRS-CMC has been providing Maintenance and Repair (M&R) services for chassis, containers, reefers, and gensets from two Port Houston terminals for nearly nine years. In addition to the container storage solution, the depot offers a pre-pull program service for warehouses and distribution centers and efficient grounded reefer and genset operations.

"We are committed to the Houston market, which is demonstrated by our new, state-of-the-art facility as well as our increased investment in the container storage solution, which not only relieves port congestion. Containers can leave the port before free time expires and then be stored until customers are ready to receive them, greatly improving supply chain fluidity in the region,” Mr. Miller added.