Rising Container Detention
19th August, 2021
It’s been well documented that shipping capacity on containerised imports into Australia and exports to overseas markets has experienced major delays and increased freight costs. As a flow-on effect of these shipping delays and issues with equipment capacity, container detention costs are rising at an unprecedented rate.
Australia is now moving into its traditional “peak season” with continued strong import and seasonal export demand, shipping lines are imposing steeper container detention costs on import and export container equipment. Most container shipping lines servicing Australia have normal import container detention terms & conditions ranging between 7 to 10 “free (calendar) days”, with many also counting weekends and public holidays. Also, most shipping lines start counting the detention free time from discharge of the container from the vessel rather than from when the container is physically available for pick up through the container stevedores’ vehicle booking systems.
The challenges to stay within the specified container detention timeframe is further affected when you also add in the biosecurity interventions like Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) on-shore fumigations and instances where some empty container parks are not open on weekends or public holidays despite those days being counted in the shipping lines’ detention free day conditions.
To assist with minimising any detention cost, please ensure your overseas suppliers are making available all required import documents at the time of export, rather than when the goods arrive in Australia. This allows our customs team to have your import clearance processed prior to vessel arrival.
If you require further information, please contact us at sales@sccargo.com.au