ACD Press Release

NACD Welcomes Hearing to Address Ongoing Maritime Shipping Delays, Port Congestion, Container Shortages, Rising Costs

Urges Immediate Action by the Federal Maritime Commission

Arlington, VA – Today, National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD) President and CEO Eric R. Byer issued the following statement applauding the U.S. House of Representatives’ Transportation and Infrastructure Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee for holding today’s hearing, “Impacts of Shipping Container Shortages, Delays, and Increased Demand on the North American Supply Chain." The hearing was convened to address the ongoing maritime shipping delays, port congestion, container shortages, soaring costs, and the resulting U.S. inventory shortages.

“NACD applauds the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation for conducting a much-needed hearing today to examine the numerous maritime shipping problems facing the U.S. supply chain. It is critical that the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) acts promptly to address the ongoing, time-consuming, and expensive shipping challenges NACD members and other shippers are facing in both importing and exporting products critical to the U.S. and world economies.

Shippers, the cornerstone of our nation’s economy, are being asked to do and pay more for inefficiencies in the cargo shipping system. The FMC must exercise its authority and take concrete action to ensure that neither the activities of ocean-liner shipping groups nor foreign government laws or regulations impose unfair costs on American shippers, and ultimately on American consumers of imported goods. Additionally, the FMC must protect American importers and exporters from being assessed dismissive and unscrupulous detention and demurrage charges when terminals/ports are not operating and unloading containers, are not open for business, or have considerable backlogs and delays lasting days and weeks.

We thank Subcommittee Chairman Carbajal and Ranking Member Gibbs for holding this important hearing today. It is imperative that the FMC now move beyond fact-finding to advancing solutions that protect our U.S.-based importers and exporters. NACD also calls on the Biden administration and Congress to invest dedicated infrastructure dollars in addressing freight bottlenecks, including investment in real-time tracking of vessels to customers from ship to port, truck and rail, in addition to supporting the U.S. manufacturing base for shipping containers and chassis to add much-needed shipping containers into the system.”

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NACD and its over 400 member and Affiliate companies are vital to the chemical supply chain providing products to over 750,000 end users. NACD members are leaders in health, safety, security, and environmental performance through the implementation of Responsible Distribution, established in 1991 as a condition of membership and third-party-verified management practice. NACD was established in 1971 and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. For more information ?on NACD and how the association is Celebrating 50 Years, visit www.acd-chem.com.