Shipping price tags will remain high for the next 12 months as large manufacturers and retailers lock in the higher prices with ocean carriers for yearlong freight rates, Bloomberg reported April 11. For the past several months, the price to ship a container of goods from China to the U.S. West Coast and Europe has been near a record high, with conditions primed for even more increases.

A new container terminal at the port of Charleston, South Carolina, is the first container terminal to open in the U.S. since 2009, the South Carolina Ports Authority said April 9. The authority said the terminal was “20 years in the making” and expects it to offer some relief to highly congested container ports around the country, which are struggling to handle unprecedented levels of cargo. The first vessel arrived at the port last week.

Maersk reduced its Spot online booking service as it assesses the impact of last month’s Suez Canal blockage on global shipping and supply chains, the company said in an April 5 advisory. The reduction is expected to affect exports from Asia, Europe, the Americas and Africa, Maersk said. The company wants to “ensure that what we sell to our customers, we can deliver.”

The Federal Maritime Commission will begin issuing information demand orders to ocean carriers and terminal operators to determine if they are violating detention and demurrage practices, the FMC said Feb. 17. The orders will be sent to ocean carriers operating in an alliance and calling at the Port of Los Angeles, the Port of Long Beach or the Port of New York and New Jersey, and will require them to provide information on how they impose detention and demurrage charges, and their policies related to container returns and container availability for exporters (see 2012090009), the commission said.

A new fee on cargo passing through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach may start in the second half of 2021, a Port of Los Angeles spokesperson said, citing remarks from port staff at a Jan. 27 meeting. But each port’s harbor commission will need to vote to approve a start date for the Clean Truck Fund rate before the fee begins, the spokesperson said. Approved in March 2020, the fee will be assessed at $10 per twenty-foot equivalent unit (TEU) -- to be paid by the beneficial cargo owner -- for loaded containers hauled by heavy-duty trucks that enter or exit port terminals. The fee is intended to incentivize adoption of zero emissions trucks, which will be exempt from the fee. The ports are also considering exemptions for low nitrogen oxide trucks. Implementation of the fee has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the spokesperson said.

Detention and demurrage disruptions are causing devastating damage to U.S. intermodal carriers and are placing large burdens on the shipping and transportation industry, the Harbor Trucking Association said in a new report. The association, which represents U.S. drayage carriers serving West Coast ports, and TradeLanes, a technology company focused on streamlining global commodity trade, surveyed HTA members and found that more than half reported critical negative effects on their business from the detention and demurrage costs. Detention and demurrage is common in the industry as well, with 64% of respondents saying that they incur them on more than 15% of their containers with the average price around $200 per container. Once the charges are levied, governmental relief is rarely given, with 80% of respondents saying they got charges reduced 0-25% of the time. The charges cost more than money, evidenced by the majority of respondents saying the invoices take at least 45 minutes to complete.

CMA CGM, American President Lines, APL, and ANL Singapore are asking the Federal Maritime Commission for permission to retroactively apply service contract rates and terms to shipments received on or after Sept. 27 for a period of 60 days (see 2010090022). Their petition also is asking for the ability to retroactively apply tariff rates communicated to its customers but that have not been published because of “major system impacts due to the recent cyber-attack.” The FMC is asking for public comments on this request through Oct. 15.

Five cargo handling organizations published guidance and a checklist on international packing standards to improve safety practices for freight containers. The groups said they are concerned by a rise in container fires aboard ships. The guidance covers the United Nations’ Code of Practice for Packing of Cargo Transport Units (CTU). The checklist details “actions and responsibilities” for those in charge of packing cargo in freight containers to help reduce “serious injuries” among shipping crews and port staff.

Illegal trade in plastic trash has sharply risen over the past two years, mostly driven by criminal organizations that use legitimate pollution management businesses as covers for their operations, Interpol said in an Aug. 27 report. Criminal groups are shipping waste primarily through “multiple transit countries” in Southeast Asia to hide the shipments' origin, Interpol said. The report details “emerging trafficking routes” for illegal trash trade and recommends that governments increase enforcement.

Denmark-based A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s “top container shipping firm,” will stop shipping solid waste to China and Hong Kong, effective in September, Reuters reported July 22. The move comes as China has imposed a series of measures to reduce solid waste imports, with hopes to eventually reach zero (see 2006030010 and 2001210024). Maersk said its decision “aims to fully comply with government requirements of the People’s Republic of China on zero solid waste import as of 2021,” according to Reuters. Maersk did not comment.