From the beginning of 2021 to now, the price of container ships has been rising due to import demand and port congestion.

The shipper also felt very painful, and the shipping company also increased the surcharge, which made the shipper worse.

Recently, the Federal Maritime Commission of the United States received a complaint against shipping companies, so FMC began to launch an investigation into several shipping companies.

A furniture shipper complained about COSCO and MSC

According to recent US media reports, a company from the US furniture industry has filed a complaint with the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC).

The objects of the complaint are COSCO Shipping and Swiss Mediterranean Shipping MSC, the two largest shipping companies in the world.

They are suspected of deliberately raising the container transportation price in violation of the US Shipping Law of 1984, with a lawsuit amount of US $500000.           

The CEO of the furniture company said that now many shipping companies have colluded to take advantage of the current shortage of container ships to improve their service prices at the expense of American consumers.

He also said，it has signed a service contract with COSCO Group, which has come into force since January 1. The relevant prices and shipping spaces at the port of departure and port of destination have been agreed in the contract.

However, since June, COSCO has refused to provide us with a small part (1.2%) of the space allocated in the contract, while Mediterranean Shipping MSc only provided 30%.

FMC conducted investigations on several shipping companies

Daniel Maffei, chairman of FMC, launched the shipping company investigation plan. He will lead the team to evaluate the shipping company's compliance with the Commission's provisions, and will provide additional information "conducive to the regular monitoring of the shipping service market".

After the above events, FMC conducted an investigation against several shipping companies. The survey asked several shipping companies to provide information about their increased surcharges.

Among them, eight shipping companies have recently issued or implemented the collection of surcharges. They are Zim, MSC, SM line, CMA, CGM, HMM, OOCL, Mason and Herbert

FMC will assess whether this behavior is reasonable according to the reasons for their surcharge.

The chairman of FMC said: "the reports fed back by these companies show that most shipping companies charge the so-called" congestion surcharge "on the grounds of surge in import demand and port congestion, but this decision did not inform the shipper in advance“

He added: "this congestion is not accidental, because it is not a small-scale congestion, but a global congestion, and lasts for a long time, so I can understand why the freight is rising, but I don't think the reason why shipping companies charge additional surcharges is sufficient”