The Southern California gateway ports said they would phase out the option to implement the container dwell fee programme on 24 January 2023, with the mechanism for its collection having never been triggered.
On 25 October 2021 LA/LB ports announced plans for a $100 per container, per day, charge for boxes left on the terminal for more than nine days, in a bid to reduce record levels of congestion that were being experienced at the ports at the time.
The charge was due to be implemented on 15 November 2021, but a significant improvement in the volume of aging cargoes left on the docks resulted in the first of many postponements to the charge being levied on shipping lines, and to date it has never been implemented.
“I said when we launched this program that I hoped we would never collect a dime because that would mean that containers were moving off our docks. And that’s exactly what occurred,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka.
“I’m grateful to the cargo owners and all our waterfront workers for all their successful efforts to improve the efficiency of our operations.”
Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero, commented: “This fee was conceived as an incentive to ease congestion, keeping imported goods flowing to stores across America. Measured by this standard, we can all appreciate the policy’s success, and best of all, the fee was never implemented.”
The twin ports have gone from record queues of over 100 vessel, some waiting over three weeks to berth in late 2021 to having spare capacity as the pandemic driven container shipping boom recedes and lines have shifted services to US East Coast ports
Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved. Seatrade, a trading name of Informa Markets (UK) Limited.
Add Seatrade Maritime News to your Google News feed.  |
