Maritime freight: towards an amendment to the US law on maritime transport?

US shippers have been suffering for almost a year rise in sea freight rates combined with a congestion in national ports. They complain of a significant deterioration in the service offered by shipping companies. In addition to the record freight rates on the trans-Pacific axis, the disruptions in ports also inflate their transport bills due to the Capital and demurrage costs.

Their professional association has therefore decided to take action by proposing to modernise the Shipping Act, the national regulations on maritime transport dating from 1984.

The following are the four main NITL recommendations to the U.S. Congress:

1. Establish fair rules for the application of demurrage and detention costs;
2. Introducing bonds for theallocation of equipment and space on ships, forcontract implementation and putting in place contingency plans during port congestion to mitigate impacts on the supply chain;
3. Ending abuse related to access to equipment and space by amending regulations;
4. Give more power to the Federal Maritime Commission, the shipping regulatory authority, so that it can participate in complaints against shipping companies.

For NITL, the legislation needs to be modernized to meet current challenges, the situation is unsustainable for importers and exporters.

The World Shipping Council, which represents international shipping, immediately defended itself by arguing that the critical situation experienced by US shippers is due to the current high demand for post-VOCID effects. He judges the NITL proposal « pointless and unrealistic ».

To go further...

• Sales Administration (SDA) Subcontracting Export
• Import/export flow management (air & maritime)
• Diagnosis of international logistics flows

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