FMC makes index-linked contracts easier

   The U.S. Federal Maritime Commission on Wednesday voted unanimously to issue a proposed rule aimed at making it easier for ocean carriers and shippers to use service contracts with rates linked to freight rate indexes.
   Under the commission’s current rules, service contracts can only reference outside terms, such as a rate in a freight index, that are “contained in a publication widely available to the public and well-known within the industry.”
   The proposed rule would make clear that contracts can reference freight indexes or other outside terms, so long as they are “readily available to the parties and the commission.”
   Some companies publishing freight rate indexes charge for that information or do not make it widely available and the old regulation was seen as possibly inhibiting the growth of index-linked contracts.