Since last week, president Joe Biden is trying to order the American transport agencies to get to an agreement and stop the sky high freight rates on land and on sea.
The executive order is intended for FMC ( Federal Maritime Commission ) and STB ( Surface Transportation Board ) to come up with good solutions to end the so called crisis and take the steps necessary to protect all American exporters from the high costs imposed by the ocean carriers and to bring down the unreasonable fees, alongside demurrage and detention charges, that are almost double since last year.
Also this is for the Justice Department to investigate if the actions are anticompetitive practices. The railroads are also targeted, and will be asking for the monopoly railway to grant access to it’s railroad under certain conditions to other players.
Container shipping spot rates on the Shanghai – Los Angeles route soared this week to stand at a record $9,631 for a feu, which is 229% higher than same period in 2020. The worldwide surge in demand for containerized cargo space is seen in breakbulk carriers seeing a surge in requests to carry containers and in surging container ship charter rates. The Harpex index of container ship charter rates skyrocketed over 600 percent between early 2020 and July 2021.
Over the years the increasing supply of cargo space and larger carrier ships, kept ocean freight rates on the low side, but now with COVID and its effects have created a record demand for shipping and record freight rates as well. We hope the new orders will improve the actual national and worldwide situation in the shipping container industry and will navigate on calmer waters for the upcoming period.
