Swiss-Italian liner giant MSC has fired another salvo at US furniture maker MCS Industries’ accusation of its breach of shipping agreements, saying that the complaint is “baseless.”
MCS had lodged a complaint to the US Federal Maritime Commission on 28 July 2021, accusing COSCO and MSC of colluding with ocean carriers to force the furniture manufacturer to pay exorbitant spot rates to ship cargoes from Asia to the US West Coast.
On 5 August 2021, MSC responded, saying it was shocked to learn of the accusation and denying it had colluded with other ocean carriers.
On 10 September 2021, MCS’ lawyers said that it had settled its issues with COSCO, leaving its complaint against MSC pending.
In another statement sent to Container News today, MSC said that it had looked carefully into the matter, adding that MCS has withdrawn its accusation that the newly minted top liner operator had colluded with its peers.
The liner giant said, “We believe that the difficulties MCS Industries experienced with its 2021 cargo bookings under its service contract with MSC arose from errors and communication issues between MCS Industries and third-party intermediaries, and not from any wrongdoing by MSC.”
MSC asserted that if it had seen errors in fulfilling the contract, the matter would have been resolved by now. However, more than five months after MCS filed its complaint, MCS has still not provided any information that shows MSC to have breached its service contract.
MSC continued, “In the context of the ongoing global supply chain situation, MSC is working very hard to provide capacity and maintain service for its customers and wherever shippers have legitimate concerns MSC will work constructively to try to resolve them.
“MCS Industries has publicised and protracted what we believe to be a baseless complaint that is not a good illustration of the many genuine concerns of carriers, shippers, ports and other actors, all of which are grappling with the challenging Covid-induced market disruptions we all face.”
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
