U.S. carrier Network Shipping Ltd. (NWS) violated U.S. shipping regulations when it failed to provide chassis for certain shipments and instead unfairly provided those chassis to its parent company, a produce distributor, multiple produce importers and exporters said in an August complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission. The companies said they suffered $2 million in damages and costs "in connection with dumping, inspection, transportation, and lost sales of the perished cargo" due to NWS' actions, the report said.
While most shippers applauded the Federal Maritime Commission’s revised proposed rule on unreasonable carrier conduct, carriers urged the commission to again amend the wording, saying it unfairly favors exporters and stretches beyond the authority granted to the FMC by the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022. Several major carriers said the commission should narrow the rule’s proposed definition for “unreasonableness,” allow carriers to rely on “legitimate business factors” as a reason for why they may refuse cargo space, remove the rule's documented export policy requirement and revise other proposals they say disadvantage carriers.
Rebecca Dye of the Federal Maritime Commission proposed new sets of best practices for ocean carriers and marine terminal operators at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach and the Port of New York and New Jersey, covering activities surrounding container returns, earliest return dates and container pickups.
The Federal Maritime Commission published its spring 2023 regulatory agenda and continued to mention several rules to implement the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022, including a proposed rule to define unfair or unjustly discriminatory methods that violate U.S. shipping regulations. The FMC said it plans to issue that rule in December.
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The Federal Maritime Commission is seeking public comments on a new web portal, mandated by the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022, that would collect "comments, complaints, concerns, reports of noncompliance, requests for investigation, and requests for alternative dispute resolution,” it said in a notice this week. The FMC is asking for feedback on "ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected," the "use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology to minimize the information collection burden," and more, the notice said. Comments are due by Sept. 11.
Hapag-Lloyd violated U.S. shipping regulations by failing to establish adequate facilities to return empty containers to the Port of New York and New Jersey and unfairly charging detention and demurrage for containers caught in the "logistical paralysis" of its own making, Rahal International said in a June 30 complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission. Rahal, an Illinois-based importer and distributor of fruit and vegetable juices, said backlogs and delays created by the shipping line damaged some of its juice shipments, leading to hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.
The Federal Maritime Commission has hired Alex Chintella as an administrative law judge, FMC Chairman Daniel Maffei announced June 21. Chintella was previously an attorney and administrative hearing officer with the Federal Railroad Administration.
The Federal Maritime Commission this week released a revised version of its proposed rule on unreasonable carrier conduct to amend and add to a rulemaking that was widely criticized by shippers and lawmakers last year (see 2301250032, 2211090026 and 2210280051). The new supplemental proposed rule offers new definitions, clarifications, edits and additions that the FMC hopes will allow it to better implement a congressional mandate to address ocean carriers that refuse vessel space to shippers.
Major shipping line Maersk is mulling whether to appeal a recent order by the Federal Maritime Commission that fined its subsidiary, Hamburg Sud, nearly $10 million for violating the Shipping Act’s anti-retaliation provision and refusing to fulfill contract terms (see 2306080062), a spokesperson said. “We are reviewing the decision and considering next steps,” the person said in a June 9 email.