New York/New Jersey delays implementation of fee for lingering containers

The Port of New York and New Jersey is not going live with the fee for lingering containers that was set to go into effect Thursday. 

Port officials told American Shipper the unforeseen impact came to light after numerous discussions with the ocean carriers in August. Port officials are speaking with the Federal Maritime Commission Thursday and once the modification is made, the goal is to have the tariff in place for the fourth quarter of this year, with the first invoices to be issued in January.

The invoices would be based on the carrier’s Q4 balance of containers and its efforts to move out empties.

Right now, empty boxes are sitting at the port for around 30 days. The Port of New York and New Jersey has had a container imbalance of over 200,000 since January and the fee was designed to encourage the evacuation of lingering full and empty containers.

Port officials told American Shipper the ocean carriers have been “very engaged and responsive” in the last month. Several ocean carriers have  made commitments to help restore fluidity to the port by actively working on plans to move empties, they said.

According to MarineTraffic, the Port of New York and New Jersey ranked second in the weekly average of waiting TEU capacity on the East Coast with 156,000 twenty-foot equivalent units floating at sea. Savannah, Georgia, had the most as of Monday with 366,000 TEUs; Houston had 143,000 TEUs stacked on anchored vessels.