Transport, Trade and Regulation News

The Biden administration’s attempts to build a homegrown crane industry due to cybersecurity concerns drew little interest from the National Association of Waterfront Employers, which doesn’t see a threat from Chinese-made cranes.

US exporters face unexpected costs and delays due to changes in dates for dropping off containers, which the FMC hopes to address with more consistent data.

US importers are pulling forward orders to avoid potential congestion, but trucking and intermodal networks are still slack, speakers said at the launch of CSCMP’s State of Logistics report.

With supply chain volatility becoming “permanent,” more companies are taking control of previously outsourced parts of their supply chain, and even offering their own services, according to a closely watched annual report on the state of logistics.

The agency’s detention and demurrage rules are still unclear as to billing those charges to truckers, according to challenges put forth by ocean carriers.

The volume of complaints filed to the US maritime regulator against shipping lines and forwarders has surged since OSRA-22 became law.

To the extent carriers can’t pass those costs along, the industry faces the prospect of sharply higher costs for zero-carbon fuels and potentially further consolidation and reduction in choice for shippers.

The forwarder says it has been “conditionally” restored to CBP’s so-called Type 86 program and has filed a complaint against the agency to get reinstated without conditions.

The huge investment required to produce green fuels for the shipping industry needs to be underpinned by certainty over demand, which suppliers are not yet seeing, according to the European climate activist Transport & Environment.

Growth in the use of a low-value shipment rule has attracted critics, who say the de minimis program provides a loophole for e-commerce companies abroad to evade duties.

FMC investigators found the carrier “overbroadly defined and applied” the merchant clause in its bill of lading to a third party “who should not have been billed,” the agency said.

The IMO will introduce shipping’s new fuel standard in 2027 aimed at accelerating the industry’s decarbonization, but carriers need to work on improving fuel consumption now or risk missing short-term emissions goals.

The scale of the investment required by companies across the maritime value chain in the transition from fossil fuels to green energy will need to be underpinned by clear global regulations, according to shipping executives.

A legal battle over unpaid detention and demurrage bills between the forwarder and importer Giti Tire has now moved to US maritime regulators.

While the current US freight recession for trucking volumes is rather middling compared with recessions over the last five decades, the severity of the rate decline has been the sharpest and recovery isn’t likely until 2025, writes economist Jason Miller.

The customs pre-arrival security and safety program is being implemented in three steps, starting with ocean and inland waterway carriers in June.

During the tenure of the two members, the FMC has ramped up its oversight of the container shipping industry following widespread strains during the pandemic-era container surge.

A preliminary federal investigation found the use of a different breaker configuration than had been previously in use onboard the Dali that led to a series of power blackouts on its outbound voyage.

Two weeks before new rules around detention and demurrage billing go into effect, the US Federal Maritime Commission has told ocean carriers that contracts independent of a “through bill of lading” fall outside its jurisdiction.

Shippers will soon be able to retrieve cargo aboard the Dali, but they or their insurers will be expected to post sizable bonds to cover general average claims.

The exercise equipment maker alleged in a complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission that the forwarder failed to meet its obligations under a carrier haulage agreement.

Although electric trucks are improving, the electricity and charging networks needed to power them are not ready, Pitt Ohio’s Taki Darakos told a US House committee.

Biomethane and biomethanol-based fuels suitable for shipping and produced outside Europe may not receive automatic certification within the European Commission’s gaseous fuel database to be released in November.

The legislation adds advanced biofuels and e-fuels to a list of clean energy supported by the EU, which shipowners regard as a crucial step toward meeting the industry’s alternative fuel needs of the future.

The World Shipping Council said the Federal Maritime Commission’s new rule on detention and demurrage is creating “substantial confusion and uncertainty.”

The World Shipping Council said in a new report it wants Brussels to design policy frameworks “that facilitate the essential role of shipping in a globally connected economy.”

Coast Guard veteran Joe Kramek will succeed John Butler in August as chief executive of the World Shipping Council as US lawmakers continue to push legislation that brings greater scrutiny to the liner shipping industry.

An alliance of global shippers will pool their volume in a two-year deal with the carrier to transport cargo from Singapore to Rotterdam using fuel that produces zero CO2 emissions.

While the carrier is celebrating a large increase in volume transported under its low-emission services, the substantial cost of alternative fuels compared with conventional bunkers remains a hurdle to the wider cargo-owning market.

The recommended fine, which requires approval from an FMC judge, aims to rebuke the world’s largest shipping company for alleged multiple violations around detention and demurrage billing.

The electronics giant said the “staggering” detention and demurrage charges it paid for US imports carried by Cosco and OOCL threaten its ability to serve the North American market.

Recently passed House legislation amending landmark shipping reform takes a hard approach to China’s maritime influence on US ports but holds back on reining in the limited antitrust exemption container lines use to participate in alliances, writes Executive Editor Mark Szakonyi.

Carriers have been unable to shake a perception among shippers that surcharges were being set above cost-recovery levels, with a report this week directly accusing carriers of “profiteering” from the ETS.

Meeting interim emissions benchmarks will be increasingly difficult unless decisive policy action is taken, according to a new report from consultancy AlixPartners.

But there remains significant horse trading ahead as IMO member states try to reach agreement on a fuel standard and a global greenhouse gas pricing measure that need to be decided on by next year and rolled out in 2027.

The legislation is an attempt to give federal maritime law more teeth to go after what its backers see as market manipulation and potential espionage from China.

Marine terminals, truckers and warehouse operators say the state must be mindful of the large costs and ambitious deadlines it is imposing on the freight transportation sectors to reduce emissions.

Increased demand from cargo owners for expensive low-carbon transport options is essential to the development and production at scale of alternative fuels, TPM24 attendees were told.

Fiscal “loosening” ahead of interest rate cuts is spurring growth, but inflation remains a threat, S&P Global chief business economist Chris Williamson told TPM24.

Carriers are advocating in increasingly vocal and high-profile ways to ensure that an effective price on carbon comes out of IMO deliberations and puts regulatory teeth behind its commitment to eliminate carbon emissions from shipping by or around 2050.