The Federal Maritime Commission is keeping busy with an increasing intro of complaints from shippers.
The latest two to emerge involve Israeli carrier ZIM and Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC), the world’s largest containerline.
Samsung Electronics America has filed against ZIM, hitting out at the more than 2,000 individual demurrage charges and in excess of 7,000 detention type charges it has been hit with since 2020, while a now defunct California-based logistics company called MVM has claimed MSC came in with $800,000 in charges and then barred it from entering its terminal.
Other carriers forced to deploy lawyers this year as cases ramp up at the FMC include CMA CGM, Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, Maersk, Ocean Network Express, Wan Hai and Yang Ming.
“The softened market – and space situation – may well cause a flurry of suits and FMC complaints to be filed,” commented Bjorn Vang Jensen, a vice president at liner consultancy Sea-Intelligence, in a post on LinkedIn last month.
“The collective, pent-up anger and PTSD in the BCO community at large now wants out, and rate reductions won’t cut it for some,” said Jensen, a man whose career has seen him work for the likes of Maersk and Electrolux in the past.
Credit Splash247 by Sam Chambers