Speaking at a webinar hosted by Container xChange on the subject of Demurrage and Detention trends in 2022—and how to navigate them, analysts shared their container market outlooks and predictions for demurrage and detention costs going forwards.
“We've started to see shippers really struggle with these increasing fees for containers that have been stuck in port and returned late, a situation that for many shippers is really beyond their control,” said George Griffiths - Editor, Global Container Freight, S&P Global Commodity Insights.
“Many, many carriers and operators have introduced strict free time parameters, and as a result, these charges for delays have been levied against the shippers. They've become a really significant cost centre for shippers. Previously, this was a transient cost, people didn't really look at it. People didn't really pay that much attention to demurrage and detention.”
The issue has become thorny as free days limits were cut and detention and demurrage costs rocketed to around $100 per day in the wake of the pandemic, said Griffiths.
“2021 saw a major major spike in these charges,” said Candice Buckle, Content Marketing Manager, Container xChange, sharing data from the company’s annual Demurrage and Detention benchmark report.
