Surcharges at West Coast ports skyrocketed, with a fine of $410,000 for a 90-day overdue payment!

In order to ease shipping congestion and container detention, the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in the United States have begun to charge huge detention fees. Faced with sky-high bills, will you abandon the goods or pay the money? The shipping industry has continued to maintain a high prosperity this year. Not only are container prices rising, but the rental of dry bulk carriers has also been rising. The daily rental of some ships has even increased by nearly 4 times to 300,000 yuan.

The two major ports in the western United States imposed surcharges and fined 410,000 US dollars for overdue payments within 90 days!

Congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has been going on for some time. The waiting time for cargo ships to unload has been repeatedly extended, the US supply chain crisis has intensified, and some supermarkets and grocery stores in the United States may face the risk of shortages.

It is reported that in order to improve port congestion and improve the efficiency of US port operations, the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach will impose surcharges on shipping companies for two types of imported containers parked at shipping terminals . The plan will be implemented on November 1 and the measure will be evaluated on November 15.

Under the plan, containers planned to be transported by truck will be charged from the 9th day of their stay at the port; for containers planned to be transported by rail, charges will start from the 6th day (previously the 3rd day), and the charging method is the same as above.

That is to say, starting from November 1, the port will charge overdue containers, US$100 per container on the first day, US$200 on the second day, US$300 on the third day... and so on. The total amount will reach US$46,500 on the 30th day and US$409,500 on the 90th day!

The port will not start assessing fines until at least November 15, according to the plan . Port officials said they might delay collecting fees if they see progress in cleaning up the terminal, because collecting fees is not the goal, but to reduce container detention time , clean up the terminal and enable empty containers and cargo to be shipped .

According to foreign media reports, some US importers said that the costs that may be incurred by this plan will most likely be borne by US consumers in the end, but the problem of port congestion cannot be fundamentally solved.

In fact, the rising shipping costs have already made many cross-border people exhausted physically and mentally since some time ago, and the implementation of this plan will undoubtedly make things even worse for them.

Industry insiders predict that if this plan is implemented smoothly and strictly, given the current situation of port congestion and labor shortage, a large number of high detention fees may appear in the industry in the coming period of time, and this "sky-high bill" may very well overwhelm some shippers.

There are more and more discussions in the industry about this plan. Many practitioners said that when containers stay at the terminal for too long and the freight exceeds the value of the goods, some cargo owners will be forced to withdraw, and the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach are likely to usher in a wave of "abandoned goods". At that time, there will be more boxes and goods piled up at the port, which may run counter to the original intention of the plan.

In addition, some sellers are still worried that the implementation of the plan will lead to a new round of freight increases, and therefore they dare not ship.

"The fundamental problem of congestion is the shortage of vehicle frames and staff at the port. If these fundamental problems are not solved, it may not make much sense to impose surcharges. In addition, many warehouses have been overwhelmed recently and it is difficult to enter the warehouses with containers. This plan will only make us more anxious." A seller called on his colleagues to try not to ship low-value goods in the near future, otherwise it would be a loss if they were fined.

New plans for the port have been put into action, and at the same time, container prices and dry bulk ship charters have been rising.

Bulk carriers have become a hot commodity, with daily rental rates rising nearly fourfold

Since the end of last year, due to various factors such as the epidemic, the cost of maritime logistics has been soaring, and container transportation has been under tremendous pressure. Phenomena such as difficulty in finding a container and sky-high container prices have emerged one after another. Relevant data show that since last year, the increase in container freight rates has exceeded ten times.

The continuous rise in container freight rates has forced many shippers to seek alternative means. Bulk carriers with lower freight rates have become their best choice to replace containers. The increase in demand for bulk carriers has in turn led to a surge in their rental rates.

"The rental of a large handysize ship of more than 50,000 tons was around US$10,000 a day last year, but now it is US$45,000, which is equivalent to RMB 288,000 a day , which is ten times that of last year, " said the person in charge of Shanghai Shipping Company.

In addition, due to the epidemic, the turnover rate of bulk carriers at the port is very low, and the detention period of ships arriving at the port has been extended from 3 to 5 days last year to more than 15 days. The detention period has been extended, and the demurrage fees have also increased . Some ships have been detained at the port for more than a month, and more than 1 million US dollars in demurrage fees have been charged .

“Shipping companies’ schedules are very full now. Unlike in the past when shipping companies would go looking for cargo owners, this year cargo owners are looking for shipping companies themselves. The phenomenon of cargo waiting for ships is very serious. ” said a shipping company manager.

The peak season is coming, but many sellers are facing the problem of not being able to ship out their goods. A shipping company revealed that most of its 40-plus ships have been shipped out, and if there are any more cargo owners coming to the port, they will basically have to arrange for shipments in late November.

At the same time, the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Transportation announced that prices on international routes from China to the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia have fallen, the shortage of boxes will be alleviated, and some people predict that a turning point in the shipping market may be coming.

"Since March and April of this year, the price of international shipping has been rising, and the freight often exceeds the price of the goods themselves. Therefore, we decided to pile up some orders in the warehouse, but it also had a great impact on the company's capital recovery. Now that the freight rates on the routes have fallen, we have to ship goods quickly to clear the inventory. " said a boss in Ningbo, Zhejiang.

Regarding the price drop, some industry insiders speculated that it was related to two reasons: on the one hand, the frequent price drops and increases made the price trend difficult to predict, so some shipping companies began to offer discounted prices ; on the other hand, container containers were previously sold at sky-high prices, and many scalpers hoarded a lot of them. Now that prices are unpredictable, scalpers are eager to sell their stocks.

But the reality is that the price decline has only occurred on some routes, and the high freight prices on most routes have not been alleviated.

We will have to wait and see whether the port congestion can be improved. At the same time, sellers who have shipping plans in the near future can also consider transporting by air, express, and sea to avoid missing the peak season sales.

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