Compiled by Bruce Abbe, SSGA Strategic Adviser for Trade and Transportation 

The newly appointed chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) last week told a major shipping industry trade group that it’s time for a review of the U.S. Shipping Act’s laws and regulations. 

FMC Chair Daniel Maffei, speaking to the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America, said the last significant reform of the shipping laws was nearly 23 years ago, and key provisions date back to 1984. 

The shipping environment has significantly changed since those times, Maffei said, as the number of major ocean carriers has gone from more than 20 down to about nine. No major carrier is domiciled in the U.S., yet container shipping volume on the high seas has tripled. 

In light of the current, unprecedented surge in imports, skyrocketing rates and nearly unmanageable congestion in supply chains, Maffei said a review of the U.S. shipping act by Congress is in order. 

SSGA and the Agriculture Transportation Coalition have been among groups that have urged Congressional consideration of reforms to the Shipping Act to strengthen the FMC’s review and enforcement powers, as well as requirements upon the ocean carriers to provide full and fair service to U.S. exporters. 

Click here to view the full story in Container News. 

Maritime industry analyst: Brace for two years of high rates 

During a major container shipping outlook webinar last week by the prominent, London-based, global shipping consulting firm Drewry, shippers were advised to prepare to see higher freight rates and tight capacity for at least two more years. 

A Drewry executive said some relaxing of freight rates was seen for 2022, but ocean carriers are still expected to keep rates high, thanks to the capacity management capability they achieved during the pandemic and the “pricing discipline they have shown,” Loadstar reported. 

The consultancy predicted a blend of spot rates, contract rates, backhaul and regional rates will increase 23% this year, with some head–haul rates “substantially higher.” 

Ocean carriers log unprecedented profits 

While shippers are struggling with poor service and unprecedented congestion at ports globally and at inland container rail terminals in the U.S., the ocean carriers at the center of the supply chains are reporting unprecedented levels of profits, thanks to a continued surge in imports and high rates. 

Last week, A.P. Moller-Maersk reported a first-quarter profit of $2.7 billion. That was a record quarterly return for the largest ocean carrier and just shy of its full yearly profit of 2020.     

Cosco Shipping Holdings, the parent company that owns Cosco Shipping Line and Orient Ocean Container Line, reported it earned $2.39 billion for the first quarter of 2021, that was up a whopping $2.33 billion over the first quarter of 2020.   

Ocean Network Express earlier reported a net profit of $3.48 billion for its fiscal year that ended March 31. The ocean carrier was formed in 2017 through the merger of the container shipping divisions of Japanese conglomerates NYK, Mitsui OSK Line and Kawasaki “K Line.” 

How long the current global container congestion crisis will last is subject of much debate. The Drewry analyst above noted the ocean carriers have signed contracts for 170 new build ships during the first three months of the year. However, the majority won’t be delivered until 2023, on top of other existing orders. 

Lars Jensen, CEO of another major consulting firm Vespucci Maritime, told a webinar in late April that the shortage of capacity and equipment was mainly caused by congestion in the U.S., exacerbated by the temporary Suez Canal blockage. He termed it a “temporary shortage.”   

“In 2019 there were enough vessels and containers in the world, but in 2020, when we moved less cargo than in 2019, there were all these shortages,” he said. The “physical number of containers or ships” are not the problem, he argued. Rather, it’s a need to rebalance the market after getting rid of the congestion bottlenecks.” 

Empties also leaving East Coast ports 

While U.S. ag exporters continue to fret that their freight keeps getting way laid at the ports or their bookings denied or delayed as the ocean carriers favor shipping empty containers back to China, the issue is not just a problem seen at the West Coast ports serving the Trans Pacific trade. 

The Port of New York and New Jersey reported in March empty returns of containers climbed by 77.5% in March compared to a year earlier, amounting to 267,542 TEUs. Imports were also up 44.%, at 393,159 compared to 271,511 in March of last year.  Exports dropped 7.4%, down to 126,699 compared to 136,780 a year ago.

Compiled by Bruce Abbe, SSGA Strategic Adviser for Trade and Transportation 

There seems to be little, if any, let-up in the extraordinary imbalance of global container flow and supply chain congestion. The crisis, which is more than six months long and running, has constricted the export capabilities of U.S. agriculture container shippers to a trickle. In fact, some market analysts saying “the worst may yet be to come.” 

Here is a roundup of the latest transportation news: 

• “Empty-container rush signals worst yet to come for shipping community” is the headline of a Freighwaves story over the weekend. The report noted that last month, for the first time in history of a rail container volume index, more nonholiday empty containers headed back to Los Angeles from inland than loaded ones. 

The maritime ocean carriers control and govern the flow of containers. Ever–increasing demand for durable goods made in Asia and imported to North America keeps driving up rates for the eastbound Trans Pacific. The shortage of available containers in Asia is driving carriers to continue to ship empties back “neglecting (the needs) of U.S. exporters.” 

Maritime Market Expert Henry Byers was quoted about the surge in empties and what it signals for shippers, “It’s time to sound the alarms,” maritime market expert Henry Byers said in the story. “The shortage of container capacity is already affecting many supply chains, but almost no company will be spared from what lies ahead.” 

• In“Container congestion not going away as supply chains stressed beyond the max,” a research report by the data and media firm Panjiva, Federal Maritime Commission Chair Daniel Maffei said an “import boom” has “stressed our supply chain to the max and beyond”—up 50.6% year-over-year in March. 

• Asian container availability is tightening, and the purchase and rental costs of the steep shipping boxes are soaring, according to the ContainerXChange online data platform, the Journal of Commerce reported last week. The container ocean lines “warn that equipment will become even scarcer in the eastbound Trans Pacific as demand builds through May.” Delayed impact of the Suez Canal closure is apparently still affecting the system, causing experts to predict transportation markets and equipment availability will tighten further in the coming weeks. 

• As SSGA has noted previously, it’s not just an issue for North America and North Asia. “Box shortages and port congestion now an ‘industry wide challenge’ across Asia,” reported The Loadstar, citing communication from Maersk, and the equipment shortages will get worse over the next two weeks. Schedule reliability will continue to be impacted negatively. 

• Import retailers and ocean carriers are beginning to shift some of their import volumes to ports than the congested southern California ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Oakland, the Northwest Seaport Alliance, New York/New Jersey and Savannah are seeing some gains. Yet all of the major ports are experiencing some degree of operational issues, JOC reported. Maersk and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) are among carriers making shifts in their service routings.  

Blockbuster ocean carrier earnings, contract rate increases getting reported 

• While their customers are facing unprecedented equipment shortages and high rates, the ocean carriers are reporting unprecedented profits, after years of losing money due to what until recently was over-capacity. 

Hong Kong-headquartered carrier OOCL reported “spectacular” increases in volume and revenue last week for the first quarter 2021, according to Loadstar. Average revenue per container increased 58.3% year-over-year. A 28.3% increase in volumes led to a provisional first–quarter revenue total of $3 billion, up 96% from the same period in 2020, which, it should be noted, was the start of the pandemic and a series of reduced sailings by the carriers. Revenue from the Trans Pacific rose 84.9%, just topping $1 billion. 

• It should not go unnoticed that the tightening container availability and capacity forecast for May are happening at the key time when beneficial cargo owning shippers and freight forwarders are renegotiating contracts for the coming year. Container-News.com reports some shippers are paying double and up to three times as much as last year in rate increases on major trade lanes. 

CN takes on CP in competition to acquire KCS 

Canadian Pacific Railway’s recent surprise announcement of a public offer to buy fellow class one railroad Kansas City Southern (KCS), and expand its network connections to take advantage of the U.S./Canada/Mexico trade agreement certainly caught the eye of CP’s erstwhile northern competitor Canadian National Railway Company (CN). 

Last week, CN President and CEO J.J. Ruest sent a public offer to KCS President and CEO Pat Ottensmeyer and the KCS board offering to match the CP offer “Letter for Letter,” according to Railway Age.  CN has also submitted a “pre-file” of its offer with the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) for consideration. The STB will be examining the proposed acquisition for anti-competitive and service consideration for the market. 

Compiled by Bruce Abbe, SSGA Strategic Advisor for Trade and Transportation

While many Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA) member shippers would like to see stronger federal regulation of the ocean container carriers and terminals to prevent abuses when it comes to demurrage and detention penalties, they may find a small bit of encouragement from a new federal rail regulation step. 

Last week the U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) adopted a final rule that requires Class I railroads to include certain minimum information on or with demurrage invoices and provide machine-readable access to that information. The minimum information includes such things as billing cycle, shipment, care placement, credit and debit information and more. The STB announcement said the aim is to improve “the ability of rail users to review and verify the accuracy of demurrage changes and facilitate the resolution of disputes between railroads and their customers.” 

It’s hardly a revolutionary change, and Class II and Class III rail carriers are not subject to the rule.    

When announcing the rule, the STB stated that demurrage, if properly handled, serves as an incentive to prevent undue rail car detention and thereby encourages efficient use of rail cars in the rail network. 

The National Grain and Feed Association and other associations pushed the STB to create guidelines that ensure such rail penalty charges are commercially fair, practical and commercially reciprocal in nature. The STB, however, did not include guidelines for demurrage and accessorial charges and practices in the final rule. It only addressed minimum information requirements. 

Click here for the announcement from the STB, and here for coverage in Railway Age. 

The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), which regulates ocean shipping practices at ports and terminals in the U.S., adopted and released “interpretive rule” guidelines for detention and demurrage last summer after a year-and-a-half long study that sought input from all parties. The interpretive rule basically lays out how the FMC will look at disputed detention and demurrage charges applied to shippers and truckers. FMC will look at the appropriateness of such per diem charges based on if they are appropriate to make the transportation flow more efficient.     

Shipper groups and some policy makers, however, have been disappointed that over the past year during the disruptive pandemic-driven congestion crisis and the ensuing import surge that the FMC’s interpretive guidelines have shown minimal results in reforming ocean carrier behavior. SSGA and other ag shipper groups would like to see stronger enforcement steps on ocean carrier and terminal practices to prevent unfair or misapplied per diem penalties on shippers for delays they had no control over. 

Our group of companies has been vocal in recent months about the logistical problems besetting our field crop container exports. We have been adversely affected and sorely mistreated by international carriers and an intermodal system that decided to maximize profitable traffic at the expense of U.S. ag exporters and our customers abroad.   

I will hit the pause button and support them, as an example of the problems they face themselves were overcome by Evergreen shipping, the Suez Canal Authority and the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt. Thank you for freeing the Ever Given. To these groups, SSGA extends its support and gratitude for resolving the difficulties in the Suez Canal. 

If critics of globalization or trade see what happened in the Suez as an opportunity for a cheap shot or as an argument that even the mighty corporation can be punished, then they make a mistake.  

U.S. barges get caught in the Missouri. Trucks get stuck in the mud in prairie states. I know of two rail links here that have such hairpin turns that trains must slow to 20 mph. And, as we know all too well lately, our ports are congested, if not clogged. Our shortfalls are many.  

When a bipartisan U.S. Congress takes an infrastructure bill seriously, when the Biden administration acts to help our shipping slowdown at home through the Federal Maritime Commission, and when you can finally ride a fast train in the United States, then I’ll be interested in those criticisms.  

Today, my business associates and I offer our thanks to the striving tug, dredge and ship crews who risked their lives to unclog the Suez Canal and return normal shipping to the Mediterranean and the Gulf – and around the world.  

You will have only had to a visit a port once to understand the dangers. The scale at which global trade works delivers cost benefits and efficiency. The intermodal system is run by people and those workers deserve our respect.  

Thank you. We are proud of you. Struggle on. 

Eric Wenberg
Executive Director, Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance