Guide to Import Demurrage and Detention Charges

Container transportation is a huge business.

Let me give you couple of statistics related to container carriage to better explain its boundaries.

According to World Shipping Council, 17.8 million containers are in circulation in international sea transportation as of 2008. 

Containers consist of 66% percent of all maritime transportation.

Big size container vessels could carry around 11,000 pcs of 20ft containers.

Finally world busiest seaport Shanghai Seaport handles 33,6 millions of TEU (Twenty-foot equivalent unit) cargo in year 2013.

There is only one way that you can manage so much container traffic at ports of loading and ports of discharge. 

Clearing containers from the port terminals as soon as they have been discharged from the vessels.

Shipping industry has developed some certain rules in order to secure a constant traffic of containers in and out of the sea ports.

Free time, demurrage and detention charges are the most important 3 rules, which can be grouped under these rules.

Today I would like to explain free time and related port charges such as demurrage and detention on this article.


What are the main differences between 45' standard high cube container and 45’ pallet wide container?

45 feet containers are the replacements units of semi-trailers which are extensively used in land transportations. 

While some 45 feet containers have very similar internal dimensions of a standard trailer, some 45 feet containers have identical internal dimensions of a standard trailer.

Today I would like to compare not only 45' standard high cube and 45’ pallet wide containers but also their internal dimensions with the standard semi-trailers. 

What is a container number?

If you are not dealing with a fraudulent transaction, you should be able to identify corresponding container number/numbers on the bill of lading as an importer.

But what is a container number? What are the benefits of using a container number in international sea transportation? How to check a container number in order to make sure that the container number is valid and correct? 

On this article I will try to answer these questions. Let us start with the definition of the container number.