New Fees Punish Importers Already Facing Months Long Delays in Supply Chain

Evey Hwang, CBFANC Ocean Committe

The White House meeting’s focus was on addressing “bottlenecks at Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach”.   Ports agreed to extend port hours; Union leaders agree to work the additional hours; Business leaders agreed to use the off-peak hours.  Given the goal of the WH Task Force “ to identify emerging bottleneck to the economic recovery and take action”, the October 13^th meeting gave good understanding. 

One carrier nicely stated “to be clear, assessment of the ‘emergency’ fee will be in addition to previously published demurrage chares and will be invoiced to you.  To be clear, the supply chain goblins clearly spooked us in thinking the LA/LB ports believes in the collaborative spirits just two short weeks ago.

Links below provide additional information.
 
https://ajot.com/insights/full/ai-long-beachs-cordero-defends-surcharges-on-carriers-as-bold-measures-needed-to-address-congestion-crisis
 
https://www.freightwaves.com/news/breaking-port-of-la-board-endorses-carrier-fines-for-container-backlogs
 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/13/fact-sheet-biden-administration-efforts-to-address-bottlenecks-at-ports-of-los-angeles-and-long-beach-moving-goods-from-ship-to-shelf/