HMM, South Korea’s flagship carrier, has gone on the attack in its bid to rebut overcharging claims levelled by Samsung Electronics America.
Having lodged cases with the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) in Washington DC against COSCO, OOCL, SM Line and ZIM, Samsung Electronics America went after HMM last month, claiming the carrier imposed around 96,000 detention and demurrage charges which it labelled “erroneous” in a 24-page document.
HMM has just fired back lodging a $13m suit at a court in California, over what it claims are unpaid bills, as well as seeking to dismiss the case lodged with the FMC.
The FMC has been besieged with record numbers of shipper complaints during the period of liner shipping’s greatest era of profits. The commission’s powers were strengthened two years ago with the passing of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act.