Samsung complained to FMC about ZIM

On Oct. 25, Samsung Electronics' U.S. subsidiary (SEA) filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) against Israel ZIM Line. SEA alleges that since the end of 2020, Star has repeatedly failed to meet its transport responsibilities and obligations and has been charged thousands of unreasonable Demurrage and Detention charges.

SEA said in its complaint that since January 2020, ZIM has been acting as a transporter of its containers, transporting its cargo from various overseas locations through multiple U.S. ports to multiple inland locations throughout the United States in accordance with shipping agreements.

However, SEA said that from around the end of 2020 to the present, ZIM had repeatedly failed to properly meet its inland shipping obligations due to inland shipping bottlenecks in the US, including failing to ship its containers out of the US Marine terminals and intermodal terminals on time and failing to deliver its containers to designated inland locations on time. This results in SEA being exposed to unreasonable costs, expenses, delays and other damages.

SEA said it had been forced to pay a large amount of unreasonable demurrage charges, including more than 2,000 demurrage charges and more than 7,000 demurrage charges since 2020, as a result of ZIM's unreasonable practices; And was forced to assume and fulfill the carrier's inland transportation responsibilities in order to continue importing goods it sold to consumers in the United States. SEA noted that the staggering cost of increasing demurrage and container charges had become unsustainable. The present situation poses a material threat to the Company's ability to supply goods to consumers in the United States and warrants this action.

SEA also mentioned that when asked to explain why it was charged demurrage fees, Star offered various excuses, including chassis shortage, shortage of truck drivers, bad weather and congestion at ports and terminals, which were neither within SEA's control nor its responsibility. When it challenged the invoice, ZIM responded by threatening to withhold release of its goods. The SEA argued that this violated the U.S. Maritime Transportation Reform Act (OSRA 22), which prohibits retaliation.

"ZIM has repeatedly demanded payment of the disputed demurrage fee and threatened punitive action against SEA if payment was not made, including refusal to release the relevant containers and threats to stop booking new containers. In its complaint, SEA said it was seeking to set aside and cease and desist orders, as well as to compensate the defendants for injuries caused to them as a result of violations of shipping laws.

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