The US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has started seeking public comments on its proposed plan for gathering import and export information from vessel-operating common carriers. The data gathering was mandated by the recently passed Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA).
The law mandates that the FMC collect and publish total import and export tonnage and the total loaded and empty teus per vessel calling at the US. All necessary information must be provided by the carriers. The FMC will then collate and publish the information each quarter.
The Commission proposes to collect the required information monthly from common carriers that transport 1,500 or more teus per month – laden /or empty – in or out of US ports, in international common carriage.
About 70 of the 154 currently registered vessel-operating common carriers transport 1,500 or more teus a month.
The FMC said that implementing this approach would enable the FMC to capture in excess of 99% of imported and exported containerized cargo. The Commission will be able to access information for the less than 1% 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 Commission.
