Demurrage in 2016

Demurrage is a word shippers won’t want to hear in 2016.

Shippers paid an enormous amount of money in 2015 for having containers sitting idle for days. Contracts are expected to change in 2016 when the carriers decide to not give more than the usual four to five days terminal operators allow to shippers.

Howard Finkel,  Executive Vice President for Cosco Container Line North America, agreed with this motion. He mentioned to The Journal of Commerce, “Whatever the terminal gives us is what we can give the shipper. I don’t think any carrier should be offering more than what the terminal gives us.”

He also mentioned that in case there is any extended free time, it will go to the largest shippers.

Getting containers to move is priority to port authorities, besides evading congestion and delays.

Lets hope for the best.