MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company (USA) Inc. violated the Shipping Act when it failed to meet “minimum” requirements related to its detention and demurrage invoices for container shipments from Russia to Seattle, construction services company Doka said in a recent complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission. Doka said MSC charged it more than $260,000 in detention and demurrage charges for delays that the shipping line had caused, calling its practices “unfair” and “unreasonable.” The FMC should order MSC to pay Doka reparations and force the shipping company to waive the fees, Doka said.
The Federal Maritime Commission issued a draft “Finding of No Significant Impact” for its recent proposed demurrage and detention billing requirements (see 2210070079), the agency said in a notice released last week. The finding will become final within 10 days of the notice’s publication in the Federal Register "unless a petition for review is filed," the FMC said. Petitions for review must be submitted on or before Dec. 9.
MSC, one of the world’s leading container shipping lines, denied allegations made by a logistics company that it violated the Shipping Act, saying this week that the company’s October complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission (see 2210260029) was “so vague and ambiguous as to make it impractical” to “submit a reasonable answer.” MSC said it didn’t fail to provide adequate time to return containers for U.S.-based MVM Logistics and denied a host of other allegations by the company, including that it committed unfair shipping and handling practices that MVM said left it with $800,000 in fines.
Flexport denied allegations by Indiana-based Philip Reinisch Co. that it violated the Shipping Act and asked the Federal Maritime Commission to dismiss the September complaint, which said Flexport failed to include required information on more than $100,000 worth of detention and demurrage charge invoices (see 2210040021).
The Federal Maritime Commission’s proposed definition for a carrier’s “unreasonable” refusal to accommodate U.S. exports is too broad and doesn't meet congressional intent, said Reps. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., and John Garamendi, D-Calif., who led the House’s passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022.
The Federal Maritime Commission hired Phillip "Chris" Hughey as general counsel, where he will provide legal advice and recommendations to the FMC chair and commissioners on regulatory and policy matters, the commission announced Nov. 7. Hughey has previously served as the commission’s deputy general counsel and most recently worked as a foreign service officer with the State Department. Katia Kroutil had been serving as the commission’s acting general counsel and is now listed on the FMC’s website as acting assistant general counsel for general law and regulation.
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The Federal Maritime Commission should scrap its notice of proposed rulemaking on how it should define certain unreasonable conduct by ocean carriers, the Agriculture Transportation Coalition said in comments to the FMC last week. The group said the NPRM misses congressional intent “by a wide margin” and would not solve the issue of carriers unfairly declining to take exports in favor of imports.
U.S.-based MVM Logistics said major shipping line MSC violated the Shipping Act by failing to provide MVM with “adequate” time to return containers and charging per diem fees for delays MSC had caused. In a complaint this week to the Federal Maritime Commission, MVM said MSC charged it about $800,000 stemming from unfair fees and failed to "establish, observe, and enforce just and reasonable regulations and practices relating to or connected with receiving, handling, storing, or delivering property."
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