Global Container Services and Shipping Industry News Archive

6th January 2009 - AMS for China (Exports)
The Advanced Manifest System to destinations in China will start testing from late January through to March 2009. If successful, it will go live at a date agreed with Chinese Customs. This will mean that for any export bookings to China, full shipment details must be sent with your original booking 24 hours prior to the vessel arrival at the port of loading. In reality, this will require any shippers to send this information 96 hours prior to the ETD of the vessel. Failure to provide correct information could result in your consignment not being loaded to the intended vessel and shipped 1 week later.

23rd December 2008 - Far East Rate Structure
This will be changing for any sailings after 1st January 2009. Rates will now be quoted as a ‘lump sum’ and will be all inclusive of all current surcharges. This will make it much easier for customers to budget accurately their transport costs.

19th September 2008 - Changes to BAF/CAF and UK Terminal Charges
The antitrust immunity to Liner shipping conferences (such as Far East Freight Conference etc) for European Trade will be abolished on the 18th October 2008.

From that date, Conference’s that set rates for such items as BAF/CAF and Terminal Handling charges on trade routes to and from the EU will be prohibited.

This means that Shipping Lines previously limited by their respective conference will be free to set their own tariff charges.

We are all aware of the changing BAF/CAF rates, especially on some markets where they can vary each month. But a more significant change will be the UK Terminal Handling Charges. This change is likely to affect all UK companies involved in international trade, as the Handling charges for both Imports and Exports are expected to increase. We are aware that the current charge levied by the Port Authorities is, in most cases, more than is recovered by the Shipping Lines.

As soon as we have more detailed information, we will update our news page accordingly.

Please contact us if you require further information.

26th June 2008 - Peak Season Surcharge
The Far East Freight Conference have now confirmed the Peak Season Surcharge level for this year. For sailings from 1st August until 17th October 2008, the rate applied will be USD 158 per TEU. This surcharge is applicable to all movements from Asia, with the exception of Japan.

5th February 2008 - SAD H
The procedure for declaring goods to H M Revenue and Customs changed from 22nd January 2008, this effects all UK ports & airports. This is a major change to the old system, which has been in place since the 1980's. Software upgrades & staff training are just two important elements to ensure a smooth transition to SAD H. Global Containers are pleased to confirm that all their systems are fully compliant and it is 'business as usual'.

5th February 2008 - Crane Collapse at Southampton Port
A crane which collapsed at Southampton Port on the 18th January, due to high winds, has caused serious delays over the last two weeks. Due to the delays in Southampton, some vessels have changed their port rotation or missed Southampton all together.

5th February 2008 - UK Port Congestions Surcharge - UPDATE
We are pleased to confirm that the port congestion problems have eased recently and therefore the congestions surcharge has been removed for the time being.

5th November 2007 – UK Port Congestion Surcharge
The growth in cargo carried by the FEFC into the U.K. for the first eight months of 2007 has increased by almost 15% over the same period in 2006, and has averaged 485 TEUs per day for the year to date.

Together with substantial growth seen in other trades, this level of increase has created congestion not only at the major U.K. terminals, but has also caused congestion of the inland transport and delivery systems. On occasions, Lines have found it necessary to by-pass U.K. ports and feed cargo to the United Kingdom, and in some cases divert their vessels to non-scheduled ports and equalise the costs from these ports. This has created even more congestion for an infrastructure that is already overloaded. The infrastructure congestion has also made it very difficult to repatriate much needed empty containers to Asia.

The FEFC has therefore decided that with effect from containers discharging on or after 1st December 2007, a surcharge of USD 145 per TEU will be implemented to all import containers. The costs will be reviewed after 60 days and adjusted as necessary.

5th November 2007 – Peak Season Surcharge Update
We would like to remind our customers that the Peak Season Surcharge currently in force for import containers from Far East at USD 135 per TEU, has been extended to 17th February 2008.

5th November 2007 – Receiving Depots / Warehouse Storage
We are pleased to confirm that we can now offer our customers more receiving depots than ever before. From these locations, we can also provide any short-term or long-term storage.

Our depots now include: Felixstowe, Brentwood, Southampton, Manchester, Bradford & Glasgow.

11th May 2007 – Peak Season Surcharge
The Peak Season Surcharge will begin for sailings from 1st August 2007 until 15th November 2007 for cargo loading from Far East Ports (Excluding Japan). The surcharge will be USD 135 per TEU.

23rd April 2007 – New Services Introduced
We are pleased to announce three new services for our seafreight and airfreight divisions. We can now offer door to door services to and from Dubai, South Africa & Saudi Arabia.

10th April 2007 – 20’ Heavy Container Surcharge
With effect for sailings from 15th April, 20’ containers which have a weight exceeding 14 ton will be subject to a weight surcharge of $ 350 per container. This surcharge is necessary due to the use of bigger vessels and the increase of demand for heavy 20’ containers.

5th March 2007 – April 1st GRI
The Far East Freight Conference has announced a General Rate Increase of USD 200 per TEU as from 1st April. We will of course be negotiating with all our regular carriers to ensure that any increase is kept to a minimum, customers quotations will be updated accordingly.

24th January 2007 – Global Opens Dublin Office
We are pleased to announce that Global Containers have opened a new office in Dublin.

15th January 2007 – Equipment Surcharge from North China
The Far East Freight Conference have announced an equipment surcharge on 20’ containers loading from Yantai, Lianyugang, Dalian, Qingdao & Xingang/Tianjin will increase to USD 150 per container starting from 1st April 2007.