Asia/Americas carriers skip Long Beach to avoid 24-hour rule

Asia/Americas carriers skip Long Beach to avoid 24-hour rule    Hamburg Sud and Compania Chilena de Navegacion Interoceanica (CCNI) from the end of this month will stop calling at the port of Long Beach, Calif. on one of their Asia/West Coast of South America services, partly to relieve the extra-territorial regulatory burden created by the U.S. “24-hour rule” on shippers sending cargo to non-U.S. destinations.
   Introduced in December 2002, the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection's 24-hour rule has applied not only to U.S.-bound containerized shipments, but also to “foreign cargo remaining on board” while the ship calls at a U.S. port en route to other countries.
   Ships on Hamburg Sud’s and CCNI’s “Asian Express Service,” connecting Asia, Mexico and the West Coast of South America, will now omit calls at U.S. ports and will thereby no longer be required to comply with the 24-hour rule on advanced cargo information transmission. A spokesman for Hamburg Sud said the U.S. requirement was 'an extra hassle' for Asian shippers moving cargoes to non-U.S. destinations.
   Hamburg Sud said the change of rotation would improve transit times to Mexico and South America, and “will also spare customers the inconvenience of the 24-hour manifest rule.”
   The weekly “Asia Express Service” will have a rotation of Yokohama, Keelung (fortnightly), Hong Kong, Ningbo, Shanghai, Pusan, Manzanillo (Mexico), Guayaquil, Callao, Iquique, Antofagasta (fortnightly), Valparaiso, Lirquen, Callao or Paita (alternately) and Yokohama.
   Hamburg Sud also said it was altering its “AMPAC ” service, operated jointly with CCNI and Maruba, but did not specify the changes.