Container xChange, a technology company that offers container trading and leasing platform, payment infrastructure and efficient operating systems to container logistic companies, published a new Demurrage & Detention Benchmark 2022 report, which compares Demurrage & Detention rates imposed on customers by the world’s ten largest shipping lines across 60 of the world’s biggest container ports.
The report highlights the fact that U.S. importers and exporters face the highest shipping charges, and that demurrage and detention charges across 8 key ports in China increased by a staggering rate of 79% from $390 in 2020 to $700 in 2021, while still being much lower than the U.S.
The report notes that the average demurrage and detention charges by major ports so far for 2022 have declined to an average of $664 per container by 26%, although fees remain far higher than pre-pandemic at around 12%.
The U.S. came out worse regarding demurrage and detention costs in regional comparisons in the company’s report. By region, the charges in May in the US were the highest at $2,692 per container, in comparison to $549 in Europe, $482 in India, $453 in China and $366 in the rest of the Asia.
As Christian Roeloffs, the co-founder of Container xChange said, “throughout this pandemic, as shipping costs have soared and inflation has become a threat to the global economy, it has become critical for shippers to develop visibility into container operations to manage costs like Demurrage and Detention. China leads the world in maritime exports and even though it has some of the busiest ports in the world, they’ve ensured they are the most efficient – even during lockdowns.”
Shanghai, Qingdao and Ningbo are 3 of only 8 ports that increased in demurrage and detention charges in 2022. On an average, the charges at these 8 Chinese ports rose from $390 in 2020 to $700 in 2021, a rise of 79.4%.
However, in accordance with the report, Hong Kong where the container congestion was the worst, there was a 105% hike in its demurrage and detention charges from $813. Hong Kong recorded a fall of 8.9% in its charges, coming down to $1515.
The trend reversed slightly, with charges falling in some of the major ports, but continuing to increase in Dalian, Ningbo, Qingdao, and Shanghai, the report states.
Source: Container xChange
