FMC, EU, and China Discuss Bottlenecks & Congestion

This year’s Global Regulatory Summit was held virtually on September 7th, and included representatives from the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), the European Union, and the Republic of China. 

The biennial summit was held to discuss complications in the shipping industry. It included an analysis of supply and demand, and the identification of ocean freight bottlenecks and causes of disruptions in the supply chain. 

While sectoral developments since the beginning of COVID-19 were the main focus, the meeting also went over any actions taken in response by relevant authorities, the results, and how to move forward in smoothing out shipping operations.

According to Daniel B, Maffei, Chairman of FMC, “the performance of ocean carriers in meeting historic demand for their services and the unusually high costs to move ocean containers are of interest and concern to regulators, legislators and the public globally.” 

It gave players in the shipping industry “the opportunity to share information about what their respective monitoring and enforcement regimes are observing in the marketplace and compare conclusions about carrier behaviour.” 

The most common observation in the US and Europe were capacity limits triggered by truck driver shortages across all industries. The shortage in drivers led to bottlenecks at ports and warehouses, which triggered heavy port congestion that had difficulty clearing up. 

Shipping costs have also skyrocketed to record highs, and to make matters worse, various ports in China have been temporarily shutting down due to COVID-19 outbreaks, which exacerbates congestion and bottlenecks. 

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