Transport, Trade and Regulation News

Congressional pressure is intensifying on stakeholders in the containerized supply chain to find an agreeable response to the SOLAS rule.

New emissions regulations are impacting the cost of shipping to various degrees.

The U.S. is forced to look elsewhere for funding.

A cottage industry providing new products aimed at saving them money and eliminating frustration has emerged.

A group of U.S. agriculture exporters rejected container lines’ recent attempt to mollify concerns over the legal liabilities of inaccuracies in the container tare weight when generating a verified gross mass under the new SOLAS container weight rule.

India has passed much-awaited legislation that clears the way for the July 1 implementation of new container weight rules set by the International Maritime Organization’s SOLAS mandate.

With less than two months before the SOLAS container-weighing rule takes effect, questions of the strength and scale of the enforcement’s bite in the U.S. are mounting.

Don’t be surprised by disruption when the International Maritime Organization's newest SOLAS rule takes effect July 1.

U.S. state governments have allocated substantial amounts to ports within their borders in recent years as a spur to economic development.

High levels of inventory continue to depress freight demand and help create excess truck capacity.

The Obama administration is looking to the private sector to meet a long-delayed 100 percent scanning mandate.

Five non-vessel-operating common carriers and forwarders have paid the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission to settle allegations they misrepresented cargo to carriers.

Far-reaching regulation will affect many smaller U.S. transport operators, shippers as well as large companies.

A group of 19 container lines has announced a plan to ease the concerns of U.S. exporters over liability when it comes to SOLAS.

U.S. importers are urging container lines to disclose the cut-off times for the sending of verified gross mass declarations to ease their fears over the supply chain grinding to a halt.

India shippers will have more leeway on the tolerance level of variation for container weights, and one decision of the Directorate General of Shipping could impact shippers.

APM Terminals announced Wednesday it will provide container weighing services at 29 locations across its global network to ensure a smooth transition to an international regulation that comes into force on July 1.

The first terminal at the Port of New York and New Jersey has announced how it will respond to the SOLAS container weight rule.

In issuing its guidance on how exporters need to meet the SOLAS container weight rule, Israeli stakeholders have said they will double-check the verified gross mass declarations of containers.

The U.S. Coast Guard’s announcement last week that it wouldn't object to two alternative methods of verifying container weights set in motion a high-stakes game of chicken between carriers and exporters. It is also fueling a fight among ports seeking to present themselves as the most user-friendly to shippers struggling to comply with the new rule.

U.K. shippers planning to weigh the contents and packaging of a container before adding that sum to the tare weight to gain the verified gross mass will have to pay a fee.

Two additional groups of vehicle shippers have filed class-action complaints seeking double damages for alleged shipping act violations by 10 roll-on, roll-off carriers involved in criminal and civil price-fixing investigations.

The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission is levying the collective experience of the private sector to fight congestion at U.S ports.

Japan’s government has officially introduced a much-anticipated system designed to ensure the smooth implementation of the International Maritime Organization's SOLAS container weight rule from July 1 and reduced the fines for non-compliance.

The U.S. Coast Guard Thursday gave its stamp of approval to two alternative methods for obtaining certified container weights to comply with new international regulations.

Intra-Asia trade will increasingly benefit from the rapid growth of consumption in Asia as a higher percentage of cargo is shipped to end markets in the region instead of to destinations in other parts of the world.

Long-awaited guidelines on how China will implement the SOLAS container weight rule have been released.

Indian maritime authorities and other stakeholders will meet to deal with "still-unresolved" commercial and operational complexities tied to the July 1 implementation of new container weight rules set by the International Maritime Organization’s SOLAS convention.

The U.S. Senate on Tuesday unveiled a bipartisan waterways bill that could give a boost to efforts to deepen harbors in the U.S. Southeast before the much-anticipated arrival of mega-ships in their waters.

The majority of shippers and logistics providers in a CargoSmart survey had no plans to comply with the new container weight rule that will be in effect from July 1, and Drewry found that none of 20 NVOs the analyst met during an April tender process were ready to comply.

Federal Maritime Chairman Mario Cordero expects the U.S. container shipping industry to be prepared for the SOLAS container weight rule that takes effect July 1.

A major U.S. exporter on Thursday urged Congress to send the Coast Guard back to international authorities and request clarification on a new and controversial container weight rule in order to avoid severe port congestion. The Tyson Fresh Meats executive said the rulemaking process was kept under wraps and made without input from shippers.

European shippers, freight forwarders, port authorities and terminal operators have made a joint appeal to their national governments for a coordinated implementation of an international regulation requiring all containers to be weighed before they are loaded onto ships.

The government of India, buoyed by the success of a three-day maritime investor conference last week, is looking to speed up the award and construction of highway projects in fiscal year 2016 to 2017, which began April 1, as part of a larger scheme to revamp the country’s transport system.

Hong Kong has become the latest jurisdiction to set a tolerance level between the verified gross mass of a container declared by a shipper and its actual weight under the new IMO container weighing rule, which comes into effect on July 1.

U.S. retail sales may have dropped in March, but demand for toys, especially those related to Disney’s hit movie Frozen, created a surge in containerized toy imports and boosted sales for Hasbro.

In an unsurprising but welcome move for U.S. ports pursuing major harbor deepening projects, both houses of the U.S. Congress this week pushed forward legislation that would exceed White House and congressional targets for port funding.

U.S. lawmakers Thursday showed little interest in getting directly involved with the controversy surrounding the SOLAS container weight rule.

Failure to comply with the new container weighing safety regulations in the United Kingdom will be a criminal offence, punishable by a heavy fine or a prison term, according to a UK law firm.

U.S. Federal Maritime Commissioner Richard Lidinsky, Jr. said that U.S. shippers didn’t have enough of a voice in the creation of the International Maritime Organization’s SOLAS container weight rule and criticized the World Shipping Council for “hijacking” the rulemaking.