In the wake of 2021’s tumultuous supply chain disruptions, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), the U.S. overseer of liner shipping, has taken a more aggressive stance.
Encouraged by a July 2021 Executive Order from the White House regarding “Competition in the American Economy”, the FMC now has the remit to look closely at anti-competitive practices of the liner carriers- with “demurrage and detention” practices on containers attracting particular scrutiny. In some (not all) cases, carriers assert that the cargo side hoped to use containers as what were effectively temporary warehouses (with the real facilities all filled up); carriers were striving to keep the boxes moving, with cargo shippers noting the carriers’ desire to quickly grab “empties” and send them back to Asia so they could be filled up again with high paying cargo inbound to the States.