Record volume of cases rain in at the Federal Maritime Commission

The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) in Washington DC is having to handle a record number of cases. The latest complaint comes not from a shipper but from China’s BAL Container Line, which has taken SSA Marine Terminal to task over its decision to levy congestion surcharges.

“Complainant alleges these violations arose from an assessment of a flat rate congestion surcharge without a stated relationship to actual terminal congestion and continued assessment of congestion surcharges while containers were placed in inaccessible terminal areas,” a document from the FMC stated.

Most of the cases the FMC, the US’s shipping regulator, is dealing with have been brought by shippers, irate at the costs and delays they faced for the period from 2020 to 2022 when liner shipping recorded its greatest-ever financial results.

The FMC resolved 36 cases during the year to September, almost triple the number of two years earlier, according to data shared with the Financial Times.

The passing last year of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act has given the FMC greater powers.