As speculation continues over the economic impact of the strike by dockworker members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) that has shut down ports down the U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico, other affects are being felt.
Freightos, an online ocean freight marketplace and platform, reports that, in the final days before the strike, trucks rushed to move containers off yards, and some carriers off-loaded imports and skipped remaining East Coast port calls to avoid getting caught in the shutdown.
Further, Freightos says, some carriers stopped accepting reefer bookings for the East Coast and are rolling out surcharges for container bookings in October, which are likely — together with congestion and delays — to push East Coast rates up even while ports are closed.
It added that several carriers have announced they will stop the clock on detention and demurrage charges for containers stuck on yards during the strike, with the Federal Maritime Commission also warning against unfair D+D charges.
“Most arriving vessels will wait offshore for ports to reopen as alternative East Coast ports — including Montreal, where half of the terminals are shut down by a strike till October 3 — will not be able to handle large scale diversions,” the alert from Freightos continued.
Meanwhile, U.K.-based freight forwarder, Woodland Group, reports that carriers have responded by implementing the “Force Majeure” clause allowing services to be terminated at destinations other than the original port of discharge. Costs incurred because of this diversion will be charged to the cargo owner.
The Woodland Group also reported export surcharges are now in effect. CMA CGM enacted a $800 per TEU and $1000 per FEU surcharge on exports from U.S. East Coast and U.S. Gulf Coast ports from October 11. Further, the freight forwarder reports that container line ACL has also announced a Network Congestion Fee. Effective from October 20, all containers originating in the U.S., including U.S. cross-border traffic, destined for Europe, U.K., or Scandinavia will be subjected to this fee, set at $1000 per TEU or $1250 per FEU container.
