COSCO SEEKS FMC WAIVER WITH CSCL MERGER

Vessel Carrier Seeks Waiver from FMC Rules for Upcoming Acquisition

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade Report

The Federal Maritime Commission is inviting through Feb. 12 comments on a petition from COSCO Container Lines Company Limited (COSCON) requesting an exemption from FMC rules requiring individual service contract amendments.
Noting that on or about March 1 it will acquire by time charter the containerships and certain other assets of China Shipping Container Lines Co., the petitioner is asking the FMC to permit the submission of a universal notice to the FMC and all affected service contract parties in lieu of requiring individual filings for each of the 700 service contracts that will be assigned to COSCON. The petitioner is also proposing to send electronic notices to each shipper counter party. In addition, because existing China Shipping tariffs must be renumbered and republished due to this acquisition, the petitioner is seeking a waiver to avoid amending each contract with the new tariff number by publishing a notice of the change in the existing China Shipping and COSCON tariffs.