The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) is seeking public comments on a proposed plan for gathering import and export information from the container carrier industry.
The scheme proposes collecting information on tonnage and TEU from each identified common carrier on a monthly basis.
Information will be collected from ocean common carriers that transport 1,500 or more TEU per month (laden and/or empty) in or out of US ports in international common carriage.
The FMC said that the initiative is responsive to a requirement established as part of Public Law 116-146, the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA).
The law mandates the commission collect and publish total import and export tonnage and the total loaded and empty TEU per vessel of vessels calling the United States.
The law further states that ocean common carriers shall provide all necessary information to the commission. The commission is required to publicly report this information on a quarterly basis.
READ: FMC undergoes restructuring to enforce OSRA
The commission notes that approximately 70 of the 154 currently registered vessel-operating common carriers transport 1,500 or more TEU per month.
Implementing the proposed approach will result in capturing in excess of 99 per cent of imported and exported containerised cargo. The commission has the ability to access additional information for the less than one percent of remaining data if circumstances deem it necessary to do so.
Once the Request for Public Comment is published in the Federal Register, interested parties will have 60 days to share their views with the FMC.
