Shipping lines assist importers to minimize container demurrage charges

Predicting congestion at ports around the globe because shippers do not accept imported goods, container lines are introducing policies to support shippers to reduce container storage charges by allowing shippers to store containers at their yards.

MSC on Tuesday announced the "Suspension of Transit" (SOT) program at six transshipment hubs in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. The provision of this service is to assist shippers (BCOs) and consolidators (Consolidators) to have space to store containers immediately.

The program builds on MSC's efforts to ensure business continuity and maintenance of important container storage services, such as transportation of food, fresh produce, medical equipment and Other essential commodities, the company said. The SOT program is intended to help save costs that may occur to customers when faced with high storage costs at the destination, including daily container storage charges and other charges, MSC said.

Shipping lines and other port operators also share unused but unused storage space before the actual costs of Western importers increasingly cancel, reduce and delay shipments because of Decreasing consumer demand due to staying at home to safely prevent the Corona Virus 2019 disease (COVID-19).

The need to slow down the number of imported containers is increasing because some retailers and manufacturers are unable to accept containers because the warehouse is full or closed because they are not considered essential service providers to meet the demand. COVID-19 bridge, or because retailers have requested delay in delivery at distribution centers.

Under its SOT program, MSC has proposed moving and storing cargo outside the hub ports - Bremerhaven, Germany; Busan, South Korea; Port Abdullah, Saudi Arabia; Lomé, Togo; Panama International Port PSA Rodman; and Tekirdag Asyaport, Turkey. Owners of containers stored under the SOT program can avoid higher container storage and storage costs when the free storage period expires.

In a similar proposal, APL will move imported containers into the United States from container terminals at the train station to their container yards, which helps shippers save money by avoiding station storage fees. train costs more. Drivers on behalf of shippers can pick up containers faster from the carrier's container yards rather than through the yards at the train station, a container forwarding and shipping executive told JOC.com on Friday. Two.

At Fenix ​​Marine Services in Los Angeles, where APL and CMA CGM ships dock, there is an adjacent 40-acre parcel of land available for both empty containers and short-term or long-term storage containers, Sean Pierce - president and CEO - told JOC Tuesday. Fenix ​​has offered to make available land available to other port operators and operators. Although he has received several requests, other shipping lines have not moved any containers there so far, he said.

Pierce said the harbor is not experiencing congestion at this time. "At Fenix, we are very flexible," he said.

Hapag-Lloyd has received more requests from US importers to ask whether ports can store containers longer and allow more free storage periods, and whether containers can be stored in yards outside the port no. Uffe Ostergaard, president of North America Hapag-Lloyd, said the company is working with customers to allow them to buy more prepaid storage time and move containers out of the port when possible.

"This is not the only requirement, but it has certainly been chosen over the past week and I think it will increase further over the next few weeks depending on how the situation is going," Ostergaard told JOC. com.

Phaata (Source: JOC)

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