Container vessel imports and exports

The Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA 2022) includes the following language, ‘‘The Federal Maritime Commission shall publish on its website a calendar quarterly report that describes the total import and export tonnage and the total loaded and empty 20-foot equivalent units per vessel (making port in the United States, including any territory or possession of the United States) operated by each ocean common carrier covered under this chapter. Ocean common carriers under this chapter shall provide to the Commission all necessary information, as determined by the Commission, for completion of this report.’’ 46 U.S.C. 41110. The FMC will request information on containerized imports and exports from each identified common carrier on a monthly basis. The data elements will include both tonnage and empty and laden 20-foot, 40-foot, and 45-foot containers discharged and loaded. The scope will include each port of call on service strings that include U.S. calls by vessel-operating common carriers operating in the U.S. foreign oceanborne commerce. The information will be used to compile and publish a quarterly report on total U.S. export and import tonnage deployed and total loaded and empty 20-foot equivalent units per vessel operated by vessel-operating common carriers. The universe will be vessel operating common carriers that transport 1,500 or more 20-foot equivalent units per month (total across imports and exports, regardless of whether they are laden or empty) in or out of the U.S., in the U.S. oceanborne foreign commerce. The Commission estimates that approximately 70 of the 154 currently registered vessel-operating common carriers transport 1,500 or more 20-foot equivalent units per month, totaling over 99 percent of imported and exported containerized cargo.

The latest form for Container vessel imports and exports expires 2026-10-31 and can be found here.