Southern California Ports Defer New Container Dockage Fees

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach announced Monday that they will postpone until Nov. 22 their controversial container demurrage fees aimed at ocean carriers, a sigh of relief for helpless shippers who were facing stiff penalties for containers stuck at marine terminals.

In making their announcement, the ports cited a 26% reduction in the number of containers remaining beyond the limit, at least compared to Oct. 25, when they first announced the sanctions.

As we have reported, under the temporary policy approved by the Port Commissions of both ports, ocean carriers will be charged the container dwell fee for all import containers that remain at the marine terminals for 9 or more days for containers scheduled to move by truck, and 6 or more days for those scheduled to move by rail. Containers falling into these categories would be charged $100 per container, increasing in increments of $100 per container per day until the container left the terminal.

While some progress appears to have been made in removing detained containers in the weeks since the announcement of the new policy, figures updated Monday still showed more than 29,000 containers remaining beyond the limit at the Port of Los Angeles, including 20,800 that remained for 13 days or more. At the Port of Long Beach, the figure rises to 19,600 containers staying beyond the allowed time.

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Southern California Ports Defer New Container Dockage Fees