Finally, the politicians in Washington managed to cease their pointless arguing (for the time being) to work together on an important bill for the American people. And that bill will directly help the US container shipping industry.
There is a practice that some importers use that can be disruptive to the business world. Known as ‘dumping’, this means that the goods in question have been sold less than the price of the home market or sold at less than the cost to make it. Some businesses follow this questionable practice as a way to take hold of a market with their lower cost product. But there are many unethical questions raised in ‘dumping’ from professionals.
Bad things can happen to ocean freight during the transportation process, including theft of freight through piracy. And while the piracy levels are dropping to new lows, there is still a threat of piracy that plagues global shippers everywhere. Shippers lose billions of dollars worth of cargo annually due to theft. The Journal of Commerce recently released a study and an infograph about this subject.
The Harbor Maintenance Tax is an interesting component of the US freight shipping process. Essentially, shippers pay this tax, which is calculated on the value of the cargo that is being shipped into US ports. The Harbor Maintenance Tax brings in annual revenue of about $1.6 billion. Those funds are used specifically to cover the costs of projects at the various US ports, such as dredging projects.
January 31st 2014 is the Chinese New Year, which is also known as the Spring Festival or called the Lunar New Year. And this year marks the Year of the Horse. During the holiday, there will be mass celebrations, as well as diminished shipping in the Far East.
