Transport, Trade and Regulation News

There was unilateral opposition to the call made by the European Commission last May as part of its reform of customs procedures, and as expected, the measure never made it through the parliamentary review

Along with new funding for the domestic manufacturing of container cranes, the Biden Administration has given the US Coast Guard more power to monitor cyberattacks on port and maritime infrastructure.

By the time the IMO measure is introduced, the European carbon tax will have already been in place for three years, raising concerns that lengthy EU scrutiny of the global mechanism could see shippers hit with a double tax.

A core challenge facing container shipping is how to craft a global greenhouse gas pricing regulation that can bridge the price gap between green and fossil fuels while spurring investment in alternative fuels.

While higher operating costs are inevitable due to longer voyages around the Cape of Good Hope, shippers want more transparency as to what those costs are.

While shippers are using terms in their contracts to push back against the higher costs linked to the Red Sea and Panama Canal disruptions, carriers are also looking to void those terms altogether.

The sharp decline in ships moving through the Suez Canal is tamping down activity on the busy route between Southeast Asia, the India subcontinent and the US East Coast.

Some shippers, such as the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, have pushed the FMC to force carriers to offer more transparency into the economics behind the recent surcharges.

The dredging would be part of a multifaceted project to expand the terminal’s capacity from 500,000 TEUs to 2.5 million TEUs within the next decade and allow it to handle ships of any size.

The facilities must adhere to new emissions-cutting rules implemented several months ago by regulators or risk daily fines approaching $12,000 per day.

With ocean carriers rushing to the FMC to seek waivers of the 30-day notice period required to implement surcharges linked to the Red Sea crisis, the head of a major US shipper group says the commission should require carriers to provide more transparency around the additional costs the charges are meant to cover.

The Federal Maritime Commission’s final rule on detention and demurrage will be a watershed moment in the industry next year, but it won’t be the only one.

The ruling is significant because it means US brokers can no longer use less expensive offshore labor to cut down on operational costs associated with import entry preparation and other brokerage services.

The proposed 2-million-TEU container terminal would be situated downriver from New Orleans where ships won’t face the air-draft restrictions of the Crescent City Connection bridge that spans the Mississippi River.

Expectations that the US Navy will step up maritime protection in the Red Sea following an increasing number of attacks on commercial shipping hasn’t stopped carriers from routing services away from the Suez Canal.

The Water Resources Development Act, which provides funding for deepening and widening projects at US ports, has no set timeline to be implemented and stakeholders worry the delay will hinder critical work.

Container shipping is hardly the only industry to feel the impact of organized labor’s bargaining power, nor is it unique in dealing with heightened geopolitical flashpoints or regulatory pressures tied to decarbonization, writes Journal of Commerce Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

Motor carrier TCW was unable to prove that street turn fees violate US shipping law in one of the first test cases to see how the Federal Maritime Commission might regulate those charges.

The Freight Logistics Optimization Works (FLOW) program offers a free view of supply-demand data across several metrics to help make transportation management decisions easier for US supply chain stakeholders.

With shippers already having a say in regulation and policy, two House members are urging maritime regulators to give marine terminal operators and public port authorities a seat at the table.

Given shipping’s relatively poor track record on implementing anything not rigorously enforced, and a preference to delay action to the last possible minute, there seems to be a high risk that decarbonization milestones will not be met, writes analyst Lars Jensen.

The rare joint statement reiterates earlier comments by container lines that a greenhouse gas pricing mechanism is needed to make green fuel competitive with traditional bunkers during the phase when both fuels will be in use.

The fresh funding is part of recent federal efforts to increase economic opportunities for farmers and reduce food costs for US residents.

Despite initially failing to meet capacity commitments, the carrier extended the contract for three months at the original rate, saving the shipper $180,000.

Despite some pockets of progress, exactly how container shipping achieves decarbonization will likely remain an unanswered question until new zero-emission fuel standards are adopted, writes Peter Tirschwell.

Draft legislation would also seek to codify that rail demurrage fees be billed to the ocean carrier, which would then pass along the charge to the responsible shipper or BCO. .

Just a month after the European Commission announced that the block exemption regulation for carriers would not be renewed next April, the UK competition authority has also called for it to lapse upon expiry.

The bill is a response to growing CBP demands that ports pay for new inspection-related equipment, or risk having the agency reduce the amount of time its officers spend performing inspections.

The International Maritime Organization voted in May 2022 to implement the so-called Maritime Single Window from the start of 2024 in a bid to accelerate digitalization in shipping.

Despite public commitments by some 4,000 companies globally to reduce Scope 3 emissions, ocean shippers have thus far been unwilling to pay higher-than-market freight rates to achieve those goals.

An explosion in the use of the so-called de minimis provision, which enables US consignees to bring in a package under $800 in value each day, has US customs regulators worried about the intrusion of illicit goods, such as fentanyl.

Alongside broader talks on wages for its members, the International Longshoremen’s Association said individual ports need to use more union supervisors and foremen, particularly throughout the South.

Along with the grant for the Port of Wilmington’s proposed container terminal, Tacoma and Long Beach received grants for improving truck and rail access, respectively.

Six amicus briefs have been filed to the US Supreme Court supporting the South Carolina Ports Authority’s position that the ILA is illegally forcing carriers to boycott Charleston’s Hugh Leatherman Terminal as a means to acquire jobs that belong to state employees.

Carriers are already beginning to adjust schedules ahead of Europe’s new shipping carbon tax, something forwarders say could reduce direct port connections and boost transshipment activity.

The Georgia Ports Authority plans to open a third ocean terminal in Savannah in 2030 and says updating its current hybrid labor model to an all-union workforce could cost the port $600 million in its first operating year.

As activity heats up around decarbonization, there remains the stubborn fact that an unofficial law of container shipping, which dictates that shippers will always seek the lowest price or at the very least cost parity with peers, is exerting powerful resistance to the forces of climate progress.

The FMC complaint is atypical in that it’s an ocean carrier challenging fees rather than a cargo owner, forwarder or trucker pushing back against detention and demurrage charges.

The case of TCW Trucking versus Evergreen could set a precedent for whether the US Federal Maritime Commission can penalize ocean carriers for charging detention and demurrage fees during weekends and holidays when a port is closed.

The window is closing fast on shipping’s goal of having scalable zero-emission fuels account for 5% of international shipping demand by 2030, a conference in Athens was told.