FMC to Request Comments on New Carrier Data Collection Plan

The Federal Maritime Commission will soon ask for public comments on a proposed plan to collect new tonnage and cargo capacity data from certain ocean carriers. Under the proposal, which includes a 60-day comment period once published in the Federal Register, the FMC would collect information from carriers on the total import and export tonnage and the total loaded and empty 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) per vessel.

The data, which the FMC is required to collect under the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, would be provided by carriers on a monthly basis. FMC will use the data to publish a quarterly report on the total import and export tonnage and the total loaded and empty TEUs per vessel operated by common carriers.

The FMC will collect the data from carriers that transport 1,500 or more TEUs per month in or out of U.S. ports in “international common carriage,” regardless of whether they are laden or empty. The commission expects the data reporting requirements to apply to 70 of the 154 currently registered vessel-operating common carriers, making up more than 99% of imported and exported containerized cargo. The FMC said it can “access additional information for the less than one percent of remaining data if circumstances deem it necessary to do so.”