FMC chairman predicts closer shipper-carrier bonds

FMC chairman predicts closer shipper-carrier bonds    Steven R. Blust, chairman of the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission, told an industry group in Long Beach, Calif., that “the closer the relationship between the shipper and the carrier, the more likely the two can enter into mutually beneficial shipping arrangements.”
   Blust cited “an evolving business concept that is encouraging all entities along the supply chain to share information and sales forecasts. For the largest shippers, it appears that this facilitates both ‘just-in-time’ distribution and increases efficiency and visibility, which in turn lowers costs.”
   That sort of collaboration “becomes more possible as technology and information sharing platforms become more widely utilized,” Blust told a World Trade Week gathering.
   Blust cited two U.S. laws, the Shipping Act of 1984, and the Foreign Shipping Practices Act of 1988, that empower the FMC “to address conditions unfavorable to shipping in our foreign trades,” as well as “adverse conditions affecting U.S. carriers in our foreign trades that do not exist for foreign carriers in the U.S.”
   The FMC chairman noted that “most adverse conditions are remedied without the need for the commission to invoke its powers. As a regulatory agency, we do not drive changes in the marketplace, and we aim not to create new challenges for the industry.”
   However, close study of the practices of our trading partners 'falls heavily on the shoulders of the commission,” Blust said. Although “the rationales for open markets and fair trading is clear … there are times when the commission is called upon to use the full measure of its retaliatory powers.”
   Blust noted the FMC’s prime role was to help identify “business partners you can trust” and to “provide an impartial review and test of fairness of agreements or processes.”