News: CMA CGM announces that ocean freight rates will follow the actual departure date of the vessel
2022/02/21 10:14:28
On February 16, CMA CGM, the world's third largest container shipping line, announced that it will implement a new and disruptive initiative for all routes exporting from China except North America: ocean freight rates will be based on the actual sailing date as the applicable date for freight rates.
According to the official announcement, this new measure will take effect on April 1, 2022 (actual sailing date).
The details of the announcement are as follows:
It is the first major container shipping line among the world's top ten to introduce the use of sailing date as the freight settlement date. In contrast to the previous industry practice of using the cut-off date or return date as the settlement date, this time CMA CGM is using the actual sailing date to calculate freight rates, which is a revolutionary move.
What concerns shippers and forwarders most is that if the ocean freight rate is $10,000/container in March and rises to $12,000/container in April, should they pay the sudden $2,000 difference or not?
According to conventional practice, the freight forwarder and the cargo owner negotiate the price first, and then the cargo owner entrusts the freight forwarder to book the shipments, either by signing an agreement, or through mail, social media, etc., it is a means of contract.
If ocean freight rates are based on actual sailing dates, price contracts between shippers and cargo owners will be full of variability at a time when ocean freight rates of shipping lines fluctuate considerably.
The release of CMA CGM's notice has immediately generated a stir in the industry.
The current epidemic has made it difficult to solve the problem of port congestion worldwide, and the rate of container ship departures has reached an all-time low. Data shows that the vessel on-time rate fell to 32% in December last year and continues to set new record lows. In December last year, Duffy's vessel on-time rate was only 26.9%.
Today, the ocean freight rate is almost daily, if the freight rate increases due to various uncontrollable reasons of delayed vessel scheduling and late vessel departure, does CMA CGM really ask shippers and cargo owners to pay higher freight rates?
We await CMA CGM's response.
Nowadays, most of the containers from China to Venezuela goes by CMA CGM, and some of the containers to Chilean ports of ARICA and IQUIQUE as well, so please be prepared for customers from relevant countries.
Written by Mario
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