U.S. terminal operator SSA violated the Shipping Act by imposing “unjust and unreasonable” fees on Bal Container Line Co. Ltd., the Hong Kong carrier alleged in a complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission.
Easy Shipping Corp. of Calumet Park, Illinois, mishandled the shipment of four vehicles from Savannah to Al-Khums, Libya, causing exporting company USL Auto Exporting Inc. of Charlotte, North Carolina, to sustain at least $52,710 in damages, USL alleged in a complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission.
Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) of Parsippany, New Jersey, has failed to compensate vehicle exporter D.F. Young Inc. (DFY) of Berwyn, Pennsylvania, for arranging the shipment of Ford and General Motors automobiles on WWL vessels, DFY alleged in a complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission this month.
CBP resumed operation of the Eagle Pass and El Paso, Texas, rail crossings at 2 p.m. EST on Dec. 22 after it temporarily suspended operations earlier this month to help the U.S. Border Patrol address an influx of migrants (see 2312180023).
Shippers of cargo from Asia to the U.S. East Coast could see shipments take five to 10 days longer as carriers avoid the Suez and Panama canals due to disruptions caused by conflict and drought, Nathan Strang of Flexport said Dec. 20.
National Customs Brokers & Forwarders Association of America President J.D. Gonzalez said representatives from the rail industry and ports, and Homeland Security officials, including Undersecretary Robert Silvers, had a good discussion on how to optimize supply chain flows, but he hopes the group will meet quarterly and delve "a little bit deeper into some of the processes" needed to make the advisory group effective.
An administrative law judge this month denied Illinois importer MSRF’s complaint against South Korean cargo carrier HMM, saying the importer didn’t prove HMM violated the two companies’ service contract. The judge said none of MSRF’s claims before the Federal Maritime Commission were successful, partly because they were based on the terms of the original service contract, which had been amended multiple times mostly “for the benefit” of MSRF.
The Transportation Department this week unveiled a final rule that will place new financial security requirements on forwarders and freight brokers that fail to pay for services provided by a motor carrier. The new measures, first released as a proposed rule in January by the agency’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, are meant to address freight brokers and forwarders that purposely default on payments, triggering what can be a “costly and time consuming” process in a claims court that “generally results in motor carrier claims being paid pro rata.”
The European Commission will not extend the legal framework that exempts liner shipping from EU antitrust rules, it said in an announcement Oct. 10. The commission said the antitrust rules, known as the Consortia Block Exemption Regulation (CBER), "no longer promotes competition in the shipping sector" and will expire on April 25, 2024.
Correction: Terminal operators at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports will raise their traffic mitigation fee by 4% starting Nov. 1, the West Coast Marine Terminal Operator Agreement (WCMTOA) said in a news release (see 2310020071).