SIMIC

The filing is the latest made by a shipper against a major carrier following the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA-22) being signed into law June 16. In the wake of OSRA-22, the FMC has made it easier to submit a complaint without the costly need for processing fees and attorneys.

A non-vessel-operating common carrier (NVO), MTL, with a staff of 30, says that in March it asked CMA CGM to reroute five containers to Port of Bremerhaven in Germany because of the war in Ukraine. The cargo, however, ended up in the port city of Constanta in Romania, where the boxes remained for months despite the company's repeated requests to send them to the Germany, the NVO said in its complaint.

MTL said it attempted to follow up several times in March and April with CMA CGM and alleges the carrier didn't respond and "failed to advise as to the nature of the extent of the delay in Constanta." On April 21, CMA CGM sent the first demurrage bills linked to the containers idling in Constanta, according to MTL.

MTL says CMA CGM responded in June that the containers would be delivered to Bremerhaven in July. It is not clear from the complaint where the containers are now, but MTL says they have not to date been released by CMA CGM and that storage fees continue to accumulate.

Alla Solovyeva, president of MTL, declined to comment and instead deferred questions to her attorney, who did not respond to a request for comment. CMA CGM also declined to comment, according to IHS Media.