Westwood Shipping Lines, the last remaining container carrier making regular calls at the Port of Portland's Terminal 6, announced this week in a letter to customers that its final call to Portland will be Saturday, the Port confirmed.

"While we are disappointed with this news, we also understand the underlying economics of the carrier industry are at play," the Port said in a news release.

Westwood, based in Puyallup, Washington, said in the letter that it no longer penciled out to make a single call per month to Portland.

Container carriers Hanjin Shipping and Hapag-Lloyd, which accounted for most of the business at the container terminal, pulled out of Portland in 2015. The departures came in the wake of labor unrest at Terminal 6, including months of slow work during contract negotiations between West Coast port operators and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.

Westwood similarly suspended service in April 2015, but the company returned with monthly export calls last July, the Port said.

A spokesman for Terminal 6 operator ICTSI Oregon said the company had not received any announcement from Westwood as of Wednesday afternoon.

In a statement released Thursday, ICTSI Oregon chief executive Elvis Ganda said he and the company "hate to see a loyal customer like Westwood suspend its service." The company said Westwood's decision was "directly related" to the departure of Hanjin and Hapag-Lloyd.

"We remain as committed as ever to bringing container business back to Terminal 6 and increasing volumes to make it economically feasible for Westwood to resume its direct call to Portland," Ganda said in the statement.

Each of Westwood's calls to Portland took about 150 containers of hay, grass seed, dried fruits, other agricultural goods and paperboard to Japan, according to the Port. The Port said bulk, breakbulk and auto operations at terminals 2, 4, 5 and 6 have not been impacted.

An attempt to reach Westwood for comment was unsuccessful.

This post has been updated to include a statement from ICTSI Oregon.

-- Luke Hammill

lhammill@oregonian.com

503-294-4029

@lucashammill