Mark Boone
grudgingly accepted that the cost of shipping a container of wax melters from Pakistan to Charleston, S.C., doubled in the past year to more than $17,000.
But the shipping line’s extra $6,820 fee in December for a single container that U.S. Customs and Border Protection pulled aside for inspection for 20 days fell outside commercial market forces, as far as he was concerned.
“When you get hit by something you didn’t have anything to do with at all, it’s painful,” said Mr. Boone, managing director of Markus Group Ltd., a contract manufacturer in Raleigh, N.C.
Ocean carriers have been imposing more and larger such fees for boxes that have been sitting for longer periods, sometimes weeks at a time, in logjams that have snarled supply chains during the Covid-19 pandemic. U.S. lawmakers and regulators are taking a hard look…
