The US Federal Maritime Commission received a complaint alleging unfair trade practices by MSC (USA) against CCMA, a company specializing in trading metals, alloys and other commodities,
At issue were the detention and demurrage fees, i.e. the extra costs that the Geneva shipping company allegedly charged CCMA for yard storage and/or for the return of the container to the shipping company beyond the free-storage period.
CCMA reports that in October it shipped ten twenty-foot containers from Durres, Albania, to Seattle, Washington State, through MSC.
On 1st November, the goods arrived in the US port and were checked by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which carries out customs and transit police checks at national border crossings. Of these ten containers, only one was reportedly subjected to a more thorough inspection by the Customs Examination Station (CES).
In fact, the checks on the only ‘suspect’ container were not concluded until 14th November. On that day, the box was allegedly made available to the company, along with the other nine, which in the meantime had remained stuck in the port of Seattle awaiting the completion of inspections by CES.
To cut a long story short, due to responsibilities beyond its control, CCMA was unable to pick up the containers from the port before 16th November, going well beyond the exemption period granted by MSC for free collection of containers from the yard.
That is the reason why CCMA had to pay MSC D&D charges totaling 114,000 dollars. Costs that, according to the company, were not due, because it was unable to collect the goods within the free-storage period.
The CCMA is claiming compensation for MSC’s ‘illicit conduct’.
Translation by Giles Foster
