Transport, trade and regulation

US Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Daniel Maffei went before Congress Thursday to field questions about the agency’s budget, slow-going rulemaking, and whether new amendments are needed for shipping reform.

Ahead of a June deadline to issue new rulemaking on detention and demurrage billing, the Federal Maritime Commission is seeking clarity from carriers and terminals about billing shippers when container pickups and drop-offs are not possible.

Maersk in April will stop collecting detention and demurrage fees on days terminals are closed and shippers can’t pick up or drop off containers, a move yet to be followed by competing ocean carriers.

Breakbulk shippers and logistics providers have several proposals for changes to ISPM 15 mitigation and enforcement measures pending approval from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

Breakbulk industry executives warn new rules aimed at reducing vessel emissions could incentivize vessel operators to implement measures that increase emissions in other areas of the supply chain.

The independent equipment providers say upending the current business model would create additional chassis shortages and invoicing problems that would inconvenience cargo owners.

The bill would heighten transparency into regulatory penalties levied against ocean carriers and marine terminal operators and draw a sharp line on the involvement of China-based entities in US shipping.

An advisory group created by the FMC two years ago is pushing the agency to act on several key issues, but some members have expressed frustration over the response from regulators.

In approving the $31 billion merger, the Surface Transportation Board rejected arguments from the FMC and competing railroads that the deal would harm US ports and shippers.

Wan Hai is now looking at a larger civil penalty than it faced nearly a year ago following an investigation into detention charges the carrier assessed in the spring of 2021.

The Federal Maritime Commission is preparing to ask for another big increase in its budget as it looks to increase market surveillance and enforce OSRA-22.

Stripped of antitrust protection that is under scrutiny on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the legal certainty of being able to operate within alliances and perhaps even vessel-sharing agreements, ocean carriers could be all but forced to operate independently, writes Peter Tirschwell.

The Ocean Carrier Equipment Management Association says the FMC’s chief administrative judge erred in issuing a summary judgement against the group because key facts are still in dispute.

The move by the carrier comes as the FMC is in the midst of a rulemaking process around detention and demurrage billing mandated by the passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 last June.

The container shipping industry needs to collaborate in finding alternatives to fossil fuels rather than each player following their own path, ONE CEO Jeremy Nixon told TPM23.

MSC’s chief executive told TPM23 that the company’s hefty orderbook signals to customers that the carrier remains chiefly committed to ocean shipping, rather than selling an integrated supply chain service.

US shippers are entering an era of greater risk in China trade, retired Gen. David Petraeus warned, but the two largest global economies will remain linked despite moves to source goods elsewhere.

The container shipping market is quickly moving on from the pandemic period and into a phase that is at once familiar but also entirely new and unpredictable, writes Peter Tirschwell.

Major container lines have agreed to an ambitious 2030 deadline to migrate from paper bills of lading to digital versions as resistance to such initiatives weakens.

A decision by an FMC administrative judge on chassis usage will shake up the way chassis are provisioned for ocean containers, but there are several unknowns on what the future will look like at ports and rail hubs.