Here it comes! Port of Los Angeles plans to charge demurrage fees for empty containers

Recently, Los Angeles Port officials said that in order to clear terminal space, they plan to charge demurrage fees for empty containers that stay at the port for nine days or more . If approved by the Port Commission , the policy will take effect on January 30, 2022 .

At present, Yi Enjun has learned that the Los Angeles Port Commission will begin to study the feasibility of the policy on January 13, and whether the policy will be implemented in the future remains to be discussed . If approved by the Port Commission, the collection of relevant fees will be decided by the Port Chief.

Under the policy, ocean carriers will be charged $ 100 for each empty container held for more than nine days , plus an additional $100 per container per day until the container is removed from the terminal.

Last year, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach announced that they would charge container detention fees. However, after the Biden administration issued an order for ports to operate 24 hours a day and called on multiple departments to jointly solve supply chain problems, port efficiency has been significantly improved and congestion has been alleviated, thus delaying the collection of detention fees .

Today, Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles , said that although the number of containers piled up at the Port of Los Angeles terminals has decreased significantly in the past two months, there are still a large number of empty containers piled up at the shipping terminals.

As before , the real purpose of implementing the detention fee plan this time is not to collect fees, but to accelerate the release of valuable space at the dock, clear the way for more ships, and improve port efficiency and liquidity.

According to Gene Seroka , the detention fees collected this time will be used entirely for the construction of the Port of Los Angeles to improve port operating efficiency, speed up freight , and solve the long-standing congestion problem .

However, with the recent spread of the novel coronavirus variant Omicron, the world has ushered in a new round of epidemic turmoil. According to foreign media reports, the number of new cases in the United States has exceeded 1 million per day, and the number of new cases in France has exceeded 100,000 per day.

In this context, American consumers will once again frantically stock up, and with that will come overwhelming orders, which will inevitably bring huge pressure to sea and air transportation . Moreover, with the Chinese New Year approaching, cross-border sellers will also deliver goods to American ports in advance, and a new round of congestion is basically inevitable .

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