The Federal Maritime Commission’s proposed demurrage and detention billing requirements (see 2210070079) may lead to “unintended consequences” by only allowing “contracted parties to be charged with demurrage and detention fees,” the National Association of Chemical Distributors said Dec. 13 in comments to the FMC. NACD is “concerned that this requirement would in some cases force parties that are not responsible for the conduct that caused the incurrence of the demurrage and detention fees to be charged and liable for detention and demurrage fees,” NACD Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Jennifer Gibson said. “This would cause additional delays, add more time for demurrage fees to accrue unnecessarily, and increase the potential for disputes.”
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A Chinese freight forwarder asked the Federal Maritime Commission to dismiss an October complaint from a U.S. distributor accusing the forwarder of illegally trying to change the terms of a signed service contract and purposefully delaying 20 container shipments in order to submit higher detention and demurrage invoices (see 2210250021).
Major ocean carrier MSC violated U.S. shipping regulations because of its unreasonable demurrage practices, U.S. metal trader CCMA said. In a complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission released this week, CCMA said it was assessed more than $114,000 in unfair demurrage fees by MSC, which levied the charges despite the containers being subject to a government hold and unavailable for pickup. The FMC should order MSC to pay CCMA reparations for its “unlawful conduct,” the complaint said.
U.S.-based Omni Logistics violated shipping regulations when it failed to include required information on demurrage invoices for more than 200 containers, said TPG Pressure, a U.S. supplier of construction equipment and services. In a complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission dated Nov. 29, TPG said it was forced to pay Omni more than $860,000 in unfair fees before the company released its cargo, adding that Omni also invoiced TPG an additional $362,000 for “alleged services and costs.”
The Federal Maritime Commission this week announced new interim procedures for shippers, forwarders and others filing charge complaints for alleged violations of U.S. shipping regulations. The new procedures will help the FMC “take prompt action” to adjudicate complaints and guide the commission as it works to create a permanent filing process, which will be established through a future rulemaking.
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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.