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Biden administration condemns shipping companies for arbitrary charges, and demands lower freight rates

Time:2022-03-03 Publisher:Kevin Num:3639

The strain on global supply chains has overwhelmed ports in many countries, especially those in the United States. Congestion at the LA/LB port has continued to this day.

Earlier, President Biden said the port would operate 7/24 to process the containers piled up at the port as quickly as possible.

Just recently, U.S. President Biden delivered a speech, saying that he will work hard to improve the tension in the supply chain. He and his team decided to put the target to the three Global Crossing Union.

A report from the White House said: "The liner company usually collects so-called lag and retention to the owner; even if the goods cannot enter the port to extract goods, these fees are needed."

In the second half of 2021, the eight liner companies charged customers a total of $2.2 billion, up 50 percent from the first half, FMC said.

President Biden has slammed shipping companies for making huge profits last year, and such high freight rates will likely cause consumer prices to rise about 1 percent next year.

The White House said that in addition to rising freight rates, some of the business practices of many liner companies are hurting the interests of American companies. For example, canceling or changing a booking without notifying the shipper in advance and imposing a hefty additional fee.

The Biden administration has also accused the carriers of exacerbating port congestion. For example, they require truck drivers to only use specific trailers to transport containers, which will seriously reduce the efficiency of trucks getting containers out.

Meanwhile, U.S. exports have been severely affected as shipping companies rush to bring empty containers back to Asia.

To this end, Biden called on the U.S. Congress to pass strong reforms to the Ocean Shipping Act. On February 28, FMC also announced that they will strengthen existing cooperation to further promote competition in the ocean freight system.

The FMC has also stepped up its oversight of the global ocean shipping industry. Last summer, FMC established a new audit program to deal with complaints about unfair fees charged by carriers.

The FMC has addressed barriers to filing complaints and is seeking comments on changes to how carriers will charge. These efforts will continue to serve as part of the promotion of industry competition in the Biden government.

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